Beyond Ambitions
by thephaw
Summary: Everyone has ambitions that drive them. Sasuke's revenge. Orochimaru's lust for power. Naruto's recognition. Even Itachi has his own goals. But what happens when their ambitions conflict and change? Who's ambitions will come out on top?
1. The Solitary Leaf

Author's Note: This fic follows the original Naruto storyline up to around chapter 213 in the manga. After that, it sort of becomes an AU since I started it a long time ago -_-; I added a significant OC in the later chapters. Enjoy, reviews/criticism/flames are appreciated.

* * *

**The Solitary Leaf**

A field of flowers, once beautiful and teeming with life and hope, was now scarred with the signs of battle. Though the moon was hidden away by clouds, the area was still lit up through wispy embers of flame that blew in the wind. A lone tree served as a leaning post for the ANBU who continued to pant heavily, completely worn out. His two comrades, now corpses, decorated the floor in a grisly and bloody fashion. In the middle of it all stood a young man who then also collapsed to the ground exhausted; his crimson triple-tomoe eyes reverting back to their dark onyx state.

"Uchiha... Sasuke...' coughed the ANBU. "Wh-why...?" Sasuke stood up, seemingly ignoring him. "Why...," continued the ANBU, "...did you betray... the leaf?"

With a few quick movements, Sasuke pulled out a kunai, attached a paper and flicked it at the ANBU, hitting the tree the ANBU member was propped up against. The ANBU, expecting an explosion, braced himself. But instead of the loud roar of an explosion, the voice of the Uchiha filled his ears.

"Send that message to the Hokage," stated Sasuke dejectedly as he turned away and disappeared into the shadows.

---

Sasuke was dead tired after his last fight with the three Konoha ANBU. He could feel that his chakra reserves were almost fully depleted, most likely due to testing out his newly developed Chidori Rendan twice. But it wasn't enough for him. Thoughts of inadequacy still clouded his mind as he headed towards the abandoned house he called home.

Opening the door, he briefly scanned the area for any would-be trespassers. Feeling satisfied that all was clear, he started to enter but was abruptly stopped by a sharp pain erupting from his back and spreading throughout the rest of his body.

"DAMMIT, NOT AGAIN!" He screamed in agony. Desperately clutching the back of his neck he struggled his way towards the futon, collapsing on top of it. 'I can't... let it... take over...' The pain slowly subsided as he lay on his back, sweating and panting profusely. But he was used to it now. The pain. It was just like any other day for Sasuke.

* * *

Six years ago.

Sasuke awoke only to find himself completely surrounded by darkness. He could feel himself confined in what seemed like a box... or a coffin. He also felt scared, confused, disoriented, tired, hungry, and... powerful? Strength surged throughout his body. It was something he had never felt before and he wholeheartedly embraced it... hungered for more.

But that feeling of power quickly dissipated, leaving him with the mess of all the other things he felt. Anger and worry were added to list when he suddenly found himself unable to move... at all. 'The hell?'

"Saasssuke," wisped a ghostly taunting voice. Eerily, it seemed to echo throughout his mind.

'Who are you? SHOW YOURSELF!' Sasuke tried to scream out but his tongue and mouth were frigidly locked in place. All he could muster were his thoughts.

"Kukukuku. You don't even remember me?" came the voice again, sounding slightly hurt this time, "And here I thought you were looking for me with open arms." Suddenly, the darkness melted away and in its place stood the nightmarishly frightening visage of an all-too-familiar man.

'Orochimaru,' thought Sasuke. Though he could see every detail of the snake-like man, he could also feel his eyes were still shut tight. Was this some kind of vision? Or was it a hallucination? Whatever it was, it made Sasuke's hair stand on end.

"Well here I am, Sasuke-kun" For whatever reason, it didn't sound like Orochimaru at all. The realization hit him hard. It sounded like... himself?

'Orochimaru? What the hell did he do to me? Why can't I move? Why can't I talk?' Question after question clouded his mind though all he continued to see was the man who was standing before him but not.

"KUKUKUKUKU!" he heard his own voice laughing out. "Don't you remember Sasuke? YOU came to ME seeking power. But with my power comes a price."

Now he remembered. Revenge. Sasuke had indeed willingly sought out Orochimaru to learn his secrets, to gain the power he'd use for the purpose of defeating Itachi, the murderer and other surviving member of the Uchiha clan. 'Price? What the hell is that supposed to mean?'

"I now control you Sasuke-kun."

'Control him? What the hell was he talking about? Or is it me who's thinking this?' Confused, Sasuke struggled hard to move but again but his attempts proved futile. 'DAMMIT OROCHIMARU! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME!?' As if on cue, Orochimaru vanished. Sasuke's vision started expanding, twisting and forming a new setting. As everything re-focused, Sasuke found himself standing in an open field of grass; he still couldn't move at all.

"SASUKE!?" This time the voice was familiar. Sasuke even felt a bit of relief wash over him as he heard it. "What the hell are you doing with these guys!? Let's head back! Come on!" pleaded the voice.

'It's Naruto!' he realized. 'NARUTO!' he tried to scream, but all he heard coming out of his mouth was laughter. 'THE HELL!' He couldn't move at all, yet he was laughing? And now he was turning, uncontrolled, towards the source of the voice.

Naruto stood a few feet away and in a battle stance. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw somebody else standing beside himself. The mysterious person held a large sharpened bone as a weapon.

"KUKUKUKUKUKU" he heard himself laugh. 'Orochimaru? Sasuke concluded that it had to be Orochimaru that was doing this to him. Who else but a psychotic once-Sannin would even WANT to do this? A sense of hopelessness suddenly filled his mind. Was he wrong to seek out Orochimaru? Right now he was powerless to do anything.

"KUKUKUKUKUKU"

"Hey Sasuke... What's wrong with you? Dammit, can't you hear me?" a little desperation was hinted in Naruto's voice this time.

'Damn that Dobe-kun, I hope he realizes it's not me before it's too late' thought Sasuke. At that thought Sasuke found himself moving towards the nearby forest.

"Hey! Wait Sasuke!" he heard Naruto yell after him. But all he could do was watch himself run deeper and deeper into a forest while Naruto was stopped by the bone wielding ninja.

'Shit!' internally cussed Sasuke, 'What am I going to do? Where the hell am I going?' All of a sudden, a searing pain was felt at the back of his neck. 'The Seal?' he thought before the impact of the realization hit him. 'THE SEAL!!' Sasuke remembered the evil-sealing seal Kakashi had given him to help him against the Cursed Seal of Heaven Orochimaru had given him during the Chunin exams. He tried to recount how to use it. Kakashi had said something about the seal's power being dependant on the willpower of the user.

'Well now what? I'M FUCKING WILLING!'

At that thought, Sasuke's world faded into darkness once again. And once again, the image of Orochimaru appeared before him. Things were different this time though. Sasuke focused his chakra into the seal Kakashi had given him. It happened slowly at first – feeling returned to his toes and fingers, followed by the dissipation of numbness in his arms and legs.

Orochimaru, just watched as Sasuke regained control of his body, a curious look planted upon his face.

"That Kakashi's seal is more potent than I thought," stated Orochimaru, his voice now sounding like the one etched into Sasuke's memory. "But will it be enough, I wonder...? A pair of snakes visibly twisted down Orochimaru's arm.

"It's more than enough for the likes of you!" replied Sasuke as he activated his Sharingan and charged forth. Orochimaru easily dodged the Uchiha's attacks.

"My my, I commend your arrogance. But you're MINE Sasuke!" With that, the twin snakes on Orochimaru's arm burst outward towards Sasuke who reacted just a second too late. They got hold of Sasuke's legs, creeping around him at an unbelievable speed. Sasuke realized they would have him completely consumed in seconds if he didn't do something.

There was only one thing he thought might help. Instantaneously performing hand seals, he focused chakra into his hand. The effect became visible... and audible almost immediately. The sound of thousands and thousands of birds chirping represented the crackling of blue chakra that erratically surrounded his arm. Using that arm, he grabbed one of the snakes, its body burning into ashes as the blue chakra came into contact with it.

"Excellent Sasuke. As expected for my next host," applauded Orochimaru, "But I don't have time to play with your for too long..." Orochimaru opened his mouth, revealing a snake for a tongue. That snake also opened its mouth, revealing the hilt of a sword which Orochimaru pulled out. Kusanagi, the sword of the heavens. "With this you'll be mine!"

"Like HELL I will," screamed Sasuke, holding onto his wrist, the Chidori still crackling on his hand. With the Chidori still at his disposal, Sasuke rushed Orochimaru, his Sharingan taking in every detail of the Ex-Sannin. His hit landed and Sasuke's anger was abated as he pulled his hand out of Orochimaru's body.

"KUKUKUKU" Sasuke looked up only to find Orochimaru's grin stare right back at him, skin slowly peeling away. Sasuke instinctively leapt back, watching in horror as the rest of Orochimaru's skin shed, revealing the face of... himself?

"Don't worry," he heard himself say, "You'll be a part of something better now" Watching his own face grin like that made Sasuke sick but he didn't get a chance to dwell on it. A sharp pain suddenly entered his back, erupting out of his chest, and resonating everywhere in between. Looking down in shock, he saw the blade of Kusanagi jutting out awkwardly from his chest. He could feel Orochimaru behind him as the sword receded back out of the freshly created wound.

"It's a shame..." Orochimaru plainly stated, "I would have enjoyed taking you today. A fine specimen as you would help me immensely with my goals." Sasuke fell to his knees while Orochimaru leisurely walked out in front of him. Sasuke looked up at Orochimaru, completely confused, blood pouring out of his wound.

"Finish it!" coughed Sasuke. He had been completely defeated. Being unable to fulfil his ambition hurt him more than Kusanagi ever could.

"Finish you? To hear such words from someone destined to be a part of something greater..." Orochimaru smiled his usual malefic smile. "In truth, I'd like nothing more. But for now, I am unable as I've already taken the body of Gen'yumaru recently."

'What!?' Sasuke's eyes lit up at those words. A strange feeling engulfed him. Was it... hope?

"So... Sasuke. Remove such ungrateful thoughts. Kukukuku. If you want to defeat me, Sasuke-kun, live miserably..." The words were all too familiar to Sasuke.

"... hate me..." They were the words of his brother.

"...survive through the ugliness and run... run..." the deep hatred of his brother reignited. And now they fanned their way to Orochimaru.

"...learn to survive. We'll meet again Sasuke-kun, to finish this." The impossibly wide grin was the last thing Sasuke saw of the ex-sannin as he faded away, his mind and body completely drained.

The dark world disappeared as quickly as it had formed, receding into a lush woodland area. The pain in his chest subsided as Sasuke found himself lying on the ground in what appeared to be a forest. 'It's gone,' thought Sasuke as he checked his wound.

Now completely shaken, he did the only thing he could think of at the time. He headed back to Konohagakure.

Thoughts continued to flood his mind on his way to the village. 'Should I go help Naruto and the others? Should I go ask for Tsunade's help? Should I stay in the village?' Each thought was dispelled almost as quickly as they had arrived.

No. If he stayed at the village, he'd be shunned as the future Orochimaru. And, If he stayed in the village, he would never be able to take his revenge on his brother Itachi either. So after careful consideration, he finally decided that he would just go home to pick up some supplies and leave Konoha behind for good. His mind went blank afterwards as he headed home.

'Someone's here!' thought Sasuke as he arrived at his house, finding the door slightly ajar. Silently and cautiously, he snuck inside. Hearing something in the living room, he instinctively grabbed a kunai out of his pouch. Peering into the room, the visage of a familiar pink-haired kunoichi sobbing away caught him off guard.

'Sakura!?' he thought, 'why is SHE here?' A small part of him urged to go talk to her, but he then remembered how he had knocked her unconscious when he first left the village. 'This is for the best,' he convinced himself as he covertly snuck past the room she was in.

In his own room, Sasuke grabbed all he thought he would need. Clothes, kunai, shuriken, scrolls... he stuffed them all into his backpack. Moments passed and he scanned his room one last time for anything else worth bringing. His eyes eventually landed on a picture of himself with Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi. He picked it up, emotions flaring up inside of him. He fought them back before internally debating with himself whether or not to bring it. The debate was short-lived, however, as an incredible pain suddenly lashed out on the back of his neck, forcing him to drop the portrait, smashing it in the process.

'DAMN, NOT AGAIN! NOT NOW!' he thought to himself. The pain was nothing less than excruciating.

Sakura was a mess of nerves and emotions as she sat on the couch. Her hands seemingly glued to her face as she continued quietly sobbing, hoping and praying for Naruto to bring Sasuke back safely. Her mourning abruptly ended when she heard something like glass being smashed in the room above her.

"W-Who's there!?" she demanded, instinctively pulling out a kunai. The only answer was more silence so she decided to go take a look herself. Quickly and carefully creeping into the back of the house, she found Sasuke's room vacant with the window slightly ajar. Someone had obviously been here, escaping through the window when she had taken notice.

Sakura looked around. The room was almost barren except for a futon and a broken portrait on the floor. She checked outside through the open window but saw no culprit. Finally, she picked up the broken portrait, the source of her alert, only to find the picture was missing. "Strange," she said to herself, "Who would want..." Her eyes widened in surprise and her heart stopped beating for just a second. His image filled her mind as she stared out the open window.

'Sasuke-kun'

'That was too close,' thought Sasuke as he moved through the forest, 'Sorry... Sakura.' Deep inside of himself, he wanted to apologize to her... to bring her even. No. He couldn't think like that, he had to kill his emotions if he had any chance of fulfilling his goal of dealing with Orochimaru and exacting revenge on his brother. Friends and other similar sentiments were nothing more than burdens.

'Where to now...?' he asked himself.

* * *

Sasuke's home, present day

Sasuke lay on his bed while peering out his window, still recovering from the pain caused by the curse seal, and locked in deep thought.

Other than the fact that Sasuke had grown taller and slightly more built, his looks remained reminiscent of his time six years ago. The black pants he wore were worn-out from the wear and tear of his training. The determined look on his face remained partially hidden under the high collar of his equally worn-out black shirt. His forehead protector shone in the moonlight, once bearing the symbol of Konoha, now bearing the symbol of his once proud clan, an easily recognizable paper fan.

Most importantly, he was no longer the weak person he was back then. His earlier fight against the three ANBU from Konoha proved that. But to him, it was a minor victory, barely passable. It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. He needed to be stronger still. His mind raced, forcing himself to calm himself down. He turned his eyes towards the only picture he had, the picture with the old team seven.

The thought of returning to Konohagakure still infected his mind. But his resolve was fierce. After all, what were ambitions for?

To rid himself of Orochimaru. And to kill Itachi. The things he needed to accomplish before he'd allow anything else. 'My ambitions...' he pondered to himself. 'No, they're something more now.' And with that he fell into peaceful slumber.


	2. Words From a Survivor

**Words from a Survivor**

Tsunade sat at her desk, her head resting on a stack of papers. The bit of drool leaking down the corner of her mouth gave away the fact that she was sleeping. Genma walked through the door and into her office.

"Hokage-sama!?," asked Genma, "I need to speak with you on an urgent matter."

"Huh?" yawned Tsunade - still dazed after awakening from her short nap. Genma, realizing the fifth was sleeping on the job again sweat dropped.

"Sorry to disturb you so early in the morning Hokage-sama but I have very urgent news," explained the Jounin.

Finally fully awake, Tsunade wiped the drool from her mouth. "Yes, please continue."

"Remember the ANBU team you sent five days ago to confirm the rumours that Sasuke Uchiha was seen in the wave country? Well, one of them was found unconscious at the gates of the village today."

"What happened?" asked Tsunade

"I'm not exactly sure," replied Genma, "But his condition is pretty bad. You should check on him at the hospital."

"Right, let's go."

* * *

Tsunade felt right at home at the hospital. She often had to come here to help some of the patients with more severe injuries and conditions. The smell still got to her though.

"Hey! Old Lady Tsunade!" she heard as a small flare of anger ignited within her. She turned around to see Naruto waving to her from across the main hall of the hospital.

"You should give more respect to the Hokage, Naruto," She demanded

"Ha!" he replied, "maybe when you stop pretending to be so young. Then I'll start respecting you, Oh-baa-san."

"Grrrr…, ITS NOT MY FAULT I LOOK YOUNG FOR MY AGE!" she yelled.

"Ya right…, we all know you use some kind of secret jutsu to make you look younger. You shouldn't deceive the people of the village like that," Naruto said with a smirk.

"Why you little brat…" she threatened as her eye started twitching. She knew Naruto was only joking since they seem to somehow get into this same argument every time they meet. Calming down she realized that Naruto was wearing hospital clothes. "Anyways, why are you here Naruto? Did you get injured on your mission?"

"Nah…, I just used up too much chakra in training again. No big deal. I saw you in the hospital so I decided say hi. Well, gotta go, Lee is expecting me at the training fields," he added before rushing out the door.

Tsunade smiled. 'Reminds me of the Yondaime,' she thought to herself. Tsunade headed over to the reception area, asking the nurse for the location of the injured ANBU.

"The ANBU…right, he's in room 178. He was just dropped off here this morning. It looks like he is suffering from severe shock," answered the nurse.

------

Tsunade looked at the patient on the bed. The ANBU's mask and uniform was laid down on a chair by his side. His eyes were firmly shut and his whole body was trembling.

"Was he like this when you found him, Genma?" asked Tsunade. Genma nodded. Focusing her chakra, Tsunade hovered her hand above the ANBU's head. Green chakra seemed to flow out of her hand and into the ANBU. The ANBU's expression finally relaxed and his trembling stopped. "There, that should do it. Are you ok?"

He opened his eyes and looked around, spotting Tsunade and Genma in the process. "Where am I?"

"Konoha Hospital," answered Tsunade, "I want to hear everything important concerning your mission."

Finally regaining his composure the ANBU started to explain. "Yes, of course, Hokage-sama. As you are well aware, you sent us on a mission 5 days ago to confirm the rumours that the missing-nin, Sasuke Uchiha, was seen in the wave country. Then yesterday, as we were about to give up and dismiss the sightings of the Uchiha as just plain rumours, we felt an unusually strong blast of chakra in the vicinity and decided to investigate. Upon closer inspection, we confirmed that the person was indeed Uchiha Sasuke."

"Are you sure it was him?" questioned Tsunade, her scepticism apparent.

"Yes, we were positive it was him. At first, we thought it was Itachi since the resemblance was uncanny. His eyes were the dead giveaway that he was an Uchiha but he definitely looked younger than Itachi. He wore a forehead protector with the Uchiha symbol engraved on it.

"I see…" replied Tsunade, "So… what happened?"

"It was clear the Uchiha knew we were here spying on us when he threw a shuriken at us. He then threatened us to leave or die. We showed ourselves and offered him to return with us to the village peacefully. He declined and told us leave again. That's when we decided to try and take him by force but…" The ANBU looked down at the last word.

"But…?" asked Tsunade, curious.

"…he defeated all three of us," came the eventual reply.

Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise. "How!?" she asked. The ANBU started explaining.

The day before

"Uchiha… Sasuke, am I correct?" asked one of the three ANBU standing behind a young man.

"Leave now, don't get in my way…," replied the man as he walked away from the ANBU, "…or I'll kill you."

"If you don't come with us, we'll be forced to bring you back by force, dead or alive," answered the ANBU leader.

The Uchiha stopped, as if considering something, and slowly turned around. "So be it..." he said calmly as his eyes turned from black to red.

Several hand seals were performed in the blink of an eye, before the three ANBU realized what was going on

"KATON... HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!" Three fireballs erupted from his mouth and into the sky each attempting to fall on an ANBU member. The ANBU leader, who was directly facing Sasuke, leapt back performing hand seals of his own while the other two moved into tactical positions surrounding Sasuke throwing gas bombs at the same time. The bombs exploded into a cloud of toxic and inflammatory gas.

"Katon… Goukakyuu no Jutsu," yelled the ANBU member who just finished making hand seals. A stream of fire came out of the ANBU's mouth, contacting the cloud of gas, causing it to erupt into a raging inferno. When the inferno died down a few seconds later, all they saw was a smouldering log. "Kawarimi in that situation?!" exclaimed the surprised ANBU.

The distinct sound of birds chirping distracted them. Only there were no birds.

*CHI…CHI…CHI…CHI…* they all heard. The three ANBU all looked towards the source of the sound, jumping away from it at the same time.

"That must be the Chidori we heard about from Kakashi," noted an ANBU, "…but it's different!" The ANBU was right. Instead of just one of his hands engulfed in the lightning like chakra, both of his hands and feet were engulfed in the electrical-like chakra. The ground was being torn apart all around the Uchiha due to the massive amount of chakra being collected. All in the blink of an eye, the Uchiha vanished and before the ANBU leader could react, he saw one of his comrades suddenly get lifted off the ground and almost torn apart into a bloody mess by a blur of blue lights.

"CHIDORI RENDAN," he heard the Uchiha say before he saw his comrade fly at an unbelievable speed into the ground, obviously dead.

"ABORT THE MISSION! ESCAPE BACK TO THE VILLAGE!" yelled the leader to his remaining teammate but it was too late as he helplessly watched his other comrade succumb to a similar fate.

Seconds later, the ANBU leader found himself staring face to face with Sasuke; right into his crimson triple-tomoe eyes.

Pain lashed out excruciatingly out of seemingly every molecule of the ANBU's body.

"AAARRRGHHHH," screamed the ANBU leader as he came back to the real world now reeling in agonizing pain both physically and mentally. 'Wh-what was that?' he asked himself. It wasn't Tsukuyomi, he didn't have the Mangekyou Sharingan that all ANBU were trained to recognize. " Wh-why…did you betray…the leaf?" said the ANBU trying to get a grip on himself. He looked up only to see a kunai with what looked like an explosive tag attached to it. 'This must be the end,' he thought to himself. But instead of hearing an explosion, he heard the Uchiha talking.

"Send that message to the Hokage," stated the Uchiha plainly.

Back at Konoha Hospital

"What about Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked, "Was there any trace of him?"

"No, the Uchiha looked like he has been completely alone."

'Strange,' thought Tsunade. If Sasuke was not taken by Orochimaru back then, why would he not want to return to the village?

"Do you still have the message he gave you?" The ANBU nodded and motioned towards a paper-tagged kunai beside his mask. Tsunade took the kunai, detaching the piece of paper before reading it.

-----

_So you've found me._

_I did not want to deal with the ANBU the way I did but I was left with no choice. Send anymore and I'll be forced to deal with them in the same fashion. I no longer have any ties with the Leaf. I am no longer your concern._

_Uchiha Sasuke_

-----

The message was clear enough.

"So, what are we going to do about the Uchiha?" asked Genma, "we still don't really know if he's in league with Orochimaru."

"Well, I don't think we will be able to spare any more ANBU for this mission. There have already been intelligence reports that the Akatsuki are on the move and we will need to be prepared for them. For now, I'll try to think of something"

-----

Tsunade needed a walk. Just thinking about how she'd deal with Sasuke made her head hurt.

'Hmm…,' she thought, '…maybe Naruto…' She gleamed. Sakura would be coming back from her mission as well.

"Well that settles that," he told herself.

* * *

Akatsuki – An organisation comprised of 9 ninjas. Their goals are unclear and most of their members are S-class criminals and missing nins. Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame are the only know members at the moment. Orochimaru was a former member of the Akatsuki.

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Element: Mythical Fire Flower Technique) – A fire element technique where the user blows out multiple fire balls into the air which falls down on opponents like flower petals.

Obaa-san – Old Lady/Grandma

Tsukuyomi – An Uchiha bloodline limit technique that forces the opponent into a dark world controlled by the user. To the opponent, it may seem that they were there for days when actually it only lasts for a few seconds. This technique requires direct eye contact and mangekyou sharingan (mastery level sharingan).


	3. Team 7

**Team Seven**

Sakura was tired. She had just come back from a long and tediously boring B-rank escort mission. Not only did she have to escort an annoying perverted noble, she was forced to do the mission alone since both of her team-mates had over-trained and ended up in the hospital... AGAIN.

'Damn Naruto and Lee, I'm gonna kill them when I find them!' shouted her Inner Sakura as she made her way towards the training field she knew Naruto and Lee would be at.

Sakura didn't look like the girl she used to be 6 years ago. She was taller now, of course, and her pink hair had grown out again falling down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were still emerald but they were brighter now and full of confidence. She also no longer wore the red dress and black biking pants she used to wear when she was younger. Now she wore a black mesh jumpsuit underneath a white skirt with a slit cut in the side and a red ninja vest that still carried the Haruna family symbol on its back. Not only did her outfit accentuate her features, it allowed her free movement during combat as well.

Her looks weren't the only thing that changed; however, Sakura was no longer the helpless ninja she was before. She received regular private lessons on genjutsu from Kurenai-sensei and even Tsunade taught her medical jutsus and the secret of her super-strength. Although her technique and ninjutsu were average at best, she was praised that her genjutsu had already surpassed jounin level.

As she turned a corner, she spotted Tsunade coming out of the hospital and decided to say hi.

"Good morning, Tsunade-sama!" greeted Sakura.

"Good morning, Sakura, how was your mission?" replied the hokage.

That flared her up. "You gave me that mission on purpose didn't you!" asserted Sakura, "While Naruto and Lee relaxed in the hospital, I had to put up with some lame pervert. He was seriously so creepy I thought about failing the mission on purpose. GRAAARRGHHHH"

Tsunade laughed, "And I'm sure you'd much rather have Naruto and Lee ogling you?"

Sakura retorted. "It's not funny Tsunade-sama! And it's NOT like that with us!"

"Ok, ok... I get it." Tsunade pondered a second.

"Something wrong, Tsunade-sama?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she said, smiling at Sakura, "I actually need to meet with you and your team in my office later."

"Another escort mission?" asked Sakura, glaring up at Tsunade.

"Haha, don't worry, it will be another mission but I think this one... well let's just say you and Naruto would jump at the opportunity."

"Really? What kind of mission will it be?" asked Sakura, now thoroughly curious.

"I'll explain it to you later in my office."

"Right, I'll go tell Naruto and Lee right away," said Sakura before waving goodbye to Tsunade and running off.

* * *

At the training field, Naruto and Lee were training as usual.

Lee, who has only ever trained in taijutsu, had grown tall and muscular. His eyebrows were still thick but the bowl cut he used to sport now grew out longer, looking much more stylized. Girls started to take notice of Lee now, despite the fact that he still proudly wore his trademark green jumpsuit.

Naruto on the other hand, had grown up to look a lot like the Fourth. In fact, his hair was now a shorter version of Jiraiya's hair, just like the Fourth. Naruto's face still wore the whisker markings, only now they were more prominent. People no longer avoided him as they used to. Some girls even vied for his attention, though they always wondered why Naruto's eyes were so fox-like.

"Still doing push-ups Lee?" asked Naruto, "We should start sparring soon."

"7135, 7136, 7137, 7138…," came Lee's answer, "If I can't do 10000 push-ups, I must punch log 15000 times." Naruto sweat dropped. 'Another impossible self-imposed rule' thought Naruto. Lee's self imposed rules have allowed him to become ridiculously fast and strong. Lee was faster than even Maito Guy now. With his intense physical training, Lee was now able to open seven of the eight inner gates of his chakra circulatory system. In fact, he had just opened the seventh gate, the wonder gate a couple of months ago and had to stay in the hospital for a month because of it.

Naruto also trained hard during the past six years. Naruto had an unprecedented amount of chakra, all thanks to Kyuubi. In fact, Naruto almost never used the Kyuubi chakra anymore. His chakra had already almost rivalled the chakra of the nine-tails inside of him. The problem was that Naruto could only use about a quarter of his chakra at a time without burning himself. He had kept training himself so that he would be able to use more of his own chakra at once. Also, Naruto was now trying to perfect a projectile variation of a technique he learnt from Jiraiya, his perverted mentor.

Naruto held up his right hand. Suddenly, a small orb of wind appeared floating above the palm of his hand. He then pointed his palm and the ball of wind directly at the ground. "This better work," he said. The ball of wind, or Rasengan as most people called it suddenly blasted away from his hand and towards the ground. It hit the ground but dissipated upon impact.

"DAMMIT!" he yelled as he slammed his fist into the ground. Just as his fist touched the ground, the ground seemed to liquefy and rise up into a huge wave. The wave headed towards Naruto. "How the hell did that happen…!?" he yelled. 'Wait a minute,' he thought, 'I've seen this before, its genjutsu.' Naruto held up his hands in a tiger seal. "Kai!" he said, releasing the genjutsu on him. The big earth wave disappeared and in its place stood Sakura. "Sakura-chan?"

"Hmph…that was for leaving me to protect some dirty old man by myself while you and Lee-kun relaxed in the hospital," she said while sticking her tongue out at him.

"But…Sakura-chan," he stammered, "I didn't even know I was in the hospital till I woke up."

"That was the excuse you used last time, Naruto. Don't think I'll let you off easy thi…" she started before she was interrupted by Lee's voice.

"Come to me ladies. Yes, that's it, come closer to the beautiful azure beast of Konoha," he said. Naruto looked over at Lee and noticed that he had a huge grin on his face and a partial nosebleed.

"Umm…Sakura-chan? What genjutsu did you use on Lee?" asked Naruto

"Remember the Harem no jutsu technique you keep telling me about?"

"What about it?"

"Well, this is pretty much the same thing, only its genjutsu."

"WHAAAAAT?" complained Naruto, "How come he gets to see naked girls while I'm stuck with that weird ground wave thing? How are you supposed to get back at him by showing him naked girls?!"

"You'll see," she replied with an evil grin growing on her face. Naruto glanced over at Lee again but this time, his blushing face had transformed into a look of sheer horror.

"AHHHH! G-get away from me. I was just kidding about before!" yelled Lee.

"What did you do?" asked Naruto, confused.

"Hehehe, in my genjutsu, all the young pretty naked girls turn into really ugly old ones" answered Sakura who still wore her evil grin.

'Jeez,' thought Naruto, 'Lee got it worse than me… WAY worse. That probably scarred him for life.' "Well, you better go save him; you know Lee is no good at ninjutsu or genjutsu."

Satisfied with her revenge, Sakura put her hands up into a tiger seal and announced "Kai" before tapping Lee on the shoulder with chakra to dispel the genjutsu. Lee just sat there still shivering at the after images of Sakura's genjutsu.

"I didn't think it would be THAT bad. Naruto, you better go cheer him up," ordered the pink-haired Kunoichi.

"Why me? You're the one who put the genjutsu on him," complained Naruto.

"Just do it," Sakura demanded.

"Fine..." said Naruto. He was thinking about ways to cheer Lee up when a truly evil idea popped up into his mind. 'Sakura-chan is gonna kill me for this but, hehehe.'

"Hey Lee, look at this" he called out. Lee turned his head towards Naruto. "HENGE!" said Naruto as he turned into a naked girl. But it wasn't ANY naked girl; it was the naked form of a certain pink haired Kunoichi. Lee's eyes widened in surprise as his eyes wandered to the more unwholesome parts of Sakura's naked body. His nose started bleeding again. Naruto turned back into himself, laughing his ass off. Sakura on the other hand…

"NAAA…RUUU…TOOOO!!!" she said in an ominous voice as she slowly crept up on the laughing blond shinobi and punched him in the face, sending him flying through several trees. "PERVERT!!," she yelled.

It a while but she finally calmed down and remembered the meeting they were supposed to have with Tsunade. "Hey guys, we have to go meet the Hokage."

"A mission?" asked Lee, still slightly blushing whenever he looked at her.

"Mmmhmmm. Tsunade-sama said she'll explain the mission when we meet in her office." Answered Sakura.

"We better get going then," said Naruto, his head still aching from Sakura's punch.

"You better not try that again, Naruto," yelled Sakura. Naruto just grinned and nodded as team seven headed to Tsunade's office.

* * *

The three chuunin entered the hokage's office.

"Ah yes, please have a seat," said Tsunade, "As you probably have heard, an Uchiha was rumoured to have been seen somewhere in the wave country."

"Itachi?" asked Naruto

"No… it's Sasuke" Tsunade declared as all three chuunin's eyes widened in surprise.

"Sasuke…is alive?" exclaimed Naruto still not believing it.

"Yes. Five days ago, I sent a squad of ANBU to confirm that Sasuke was alive. The ANBU ran into him and only one came back alive. It doesn't seem as though Sasuke is under Orochimaru's control. It doesn't look like he is part of the Akatsuki either even though THEY are on the move as well.

'Sasuke-kun, I knew it,' thought Sakura, recalling the day she was in Sasuke's house six years ago.

"So…what exactly are WE doing?" asked Naruto.

"You three are to find Sasuke and keep an eye on him to find out if he truly is working alone. Also, I want you to try and bring Sasuke back to the village. Avoid any hostilities, since it seems he was able to take out three ANBU with relative ease. This is an S-class mission, usually I would do this sort of mission myself but I'm occupied with the Akatsuki right now."

"WHAT!?" yelled Naruto, "WHY US!? Can't you send Neji or Shino? They're already Jounins!"

"Umm…about that. You three have actually already achieved Jounin level a few years ago. I just held you back so I could have more people doing these C and B rank missions that appear everywhere. I'm sorry I had to do that but…please don't be angry, these are tough times for Konoha."

"You…held us back…for THAT!?" yelled Naruto.

"I understand how you feel Naruto but as of today, you three are Jounins."

"But Tsunade-sama," said Lee, "Gai-sensei said I wouldn't be ready to be a Jounin for another few years."

"Gai-sensei was just trying to protect you Lee. Don't worry, I know your skills in taijutsu very well, you are the best in Konoha in straight hand-to-hand combat. Actually, all three of you have surpassed Jounin level already in certain areas. Sakura, I've heard your genjutsu skills have surpassed Kurenai's. And Naruto, you have more chakra than any of the other Jounin, and even me, by far. I just don't know how Sasuke will react to you three, but if anyone can bring him back, you'll be the ones to do it."

All three just-turned-jounins blushed a bit at the compliments given to them.

"As soon as you're finished gathering supplies, I want the three of you to leave immediately. The ANBU encountered Sasuke in a field about fifty miles east of the Big Naruto Bridge. You can start your search there. Remember, we don't know what Sasuke's goals are right now and we don't know if he's alone or not so keep your guard up when you find him. I can't afford to lose anymore shinobi so please come back alive," finished Tsunade.

"Don't worry," said Naruto with a grin, "we're the best remember?"

"Right…good luck you three." And with that, the three jounins headed out to their next mission.


	4. Thoughts and Revelations

**Thoughts and Revelations**

Uchiha Itachi just stood there, on the eastern part of the wall surrounding Konohagakure, watching the village with his sharingan. Beside him stood his partner, Hoshigaki Kisame, who was busy adjusting the bandages wrapped around his giant sword.

Uchiha Itachi is the eldest surviving member of the Uchiha Clan and an S-class criminal who was rumoured to have killed the entire clan himself. Kisame was said to be one of the best of the mist's seven swordsmen and his sword, the Samehade, has a unique ability of absorbing chakra. Now, these two are part of the Akatsuki, an organization with an ambitious goal of becoming more powerful than any of the hidden villages.

"So, we're after the Kyuubi kid again, right?"

"As soon as we have Naruto, we are heading out. Don't get too carried away, Kisame. Your work, as always, can become a little…excessive."

"Heh, right. But if we run into any resistance…" he said while swiping his sword through the air.

"Just remember that we need him alive… preferably in one piece."

"Don't worry, he'll be alive. Can't guarantee he'll be in one piece though," said Kisame who saw a crow fly above them.

"There's the signal, let's go," ordered Itachi before they both vanished in a blur.

* * *

Naruto arrived at their old team seven meeting place. It was four in the morning but Naruto was already about half an hour late. Sakura and Lee were already there, waiting for him.

"You're late Naruto!"

"Heh, sorry about that. Its just that I had to stop by for some ramen on the way here," he explained.

"You're gonna die if all you eat is Ramen."

"Hasn't happened yet," replied Naruto, grinning, "Besides, Lee eats almost as much ramen as me." It was true. Naruto's ramen eating habits had somehow passed on to Lee throughout the three years that they were on the same team. Of course, Gai-sensei always watched over Lee to make sure he ate more than just ramen. Naruto, on the other hand, had nobody to watch over him. Even Lee was surprised that Naruto can survive on just ramen and milk.

"Hey, let's go you guys. Gai-sensei said he'd teach me a new technique when I come back. Let's get this mission over with." Lee said. He didn't really care for Naruto, after all he had risked his life years ago for someone he thought was a comrade. Only to be betrayed.

"Ok, let's go," said Sakura.

"WAIT!" they heard a voice call from somewhere nearby. It was Tsunade who was heading towards them.

* * *

Itachi and Kisame were jumping across the rooftops of Konoha village when they both stopped. With his Sharingan, Itachi spotted someone with a huge amount of chakra in the distance. "That must be him," he said, "he's just leaving the Ramen Ichiraku bar now and is heading towards the west. Remember Kisame, don't draw too much attention. We don't want all of Konoha's forces chasing us."

"Don't worry," snickered Kisame, "I've already had my fun for today."

They caught up to Naruto. "There he is," said Itachi.

"Alright, I'll handle thi…" Kisame started before he was interrupted.

"Wait," said Itachi, "Look over there, it's the hokage."

"So what?" answered Kisame, "We can take her."

"Maybe. She was one of the legendary Sannin, it might be difficult," Itachi said, "Besides, Naruto's teammates are also close-by. It would be better to catch Naruto alone."

"Damn…" cursed Kisame, clearly disappointed at not having the chance to challenge the Hokage.

"For now, we'll just see what they are up to," said Itachi. The two Akatsuki members then hid behind a large tree, hidden from the view of everyone else.

* * *

Tsunade pulled out a scroll with the Uchiha symbol on it. "I need you to give this to Sasuke when you find him," she explained.

"Hmm…What is it?" asked Naruto, curious. Tsunade gave him the scroll. Impulsively he opened it. "Huh?" he said, confused.

"Naruto…" she sighed, "You shouldn't just open scrolls that aren't meant for you. What if I put a special genjutsu in that scroll that knocks you out when you open it?"

"Uhh… sorry. But what is this for?" asked Naruto. When he opened the scroll, it was blank except for a leaf symbol at the top.

"I wrote the words on this scroll with chakra. Only people with chakra seeing abilities can read this scroll. This was a method used for a long time by the leaf shinobi when sending secret documentations." explained Tsunade.

"So only an Uchiha or Hyuga can read these?"

"Well, there are clans other than the Uchiha or Hyuuga than can see chakra but that's the gist of it."

"So… what does it say?" asked Naruto

"Sorry, Naruto, but it is for Sasuke alone. Anyways… you three better get going. Oh, and one more thing, our scouts report that the Village of the Sound is starting to move again. I don't know what they are up to but, you guys should be careful."

"First the Akatsuki, now the Sound? Whats happening?" asked Sakura.

"I'm not sure myself, but I must prepare the village in case of an attack. If you three don't find Sasuke in a week, return to the village. If the Sound or Akatsuki do attack, we'll need as many forces as we can get to defend the village."

"Right," said the three Jounins before they vanished. Tsunade then promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

'So…he's alive. Not only that, this Hokage knows about…that day…,' thought Itachi.

"Hey Itachi, something wrong? You look a bit weird." Kisame noted.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about something. Anyways we must follow those three. However, I do not want to capture Naruto yet. I'm curious to see what their goal is first."

"Hehe, getting interested in something, Itachi? The last thing you got interested in ended up dead."

Itachi said nothing.

"Let's go."

* * *

The team of Jounin moved through the treetops. Unbeknownst to the team, however, was the fact that they were being followed by two of the most dangerous Akatsuki members. Hours have passed since they left and it would be a few hours yet before they reached the bridge. So far, they have all been quiet during the trip.

"Hey, Sakura-chan?"

"Huh?"

"What do you think about this mission?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

"I mean…about Sasuke. Do you… you know? Sometimes I see you and you look…I dunno…kinda sad…like you miss someone." Naruto and Lee looked at Sakura expectantly for a reply. Although Lee is less open about it than was he was before, he still has a crush on Sakura. Naruto, on the other hand, had gotten over the little crush he had on Sakura when they were kids.

Sakura's eyes became a bit darker. "I…I don't know," she started, "it was true that back when he was still here, I liked him a lot." Sakura paused for a moment then continued. "I never told you guys this, but on the day that Sasuke left, I talked with him before he left."

"Really?" It was news to them both.

Sakura nodded. "I…told him that I loved him that day. I wasn't sure if I meant it or not and I'm still not sure. I even offered to help him with his revenge that day but…he just called me annoying." Sakura looked up and gave a faint smile. "After that, I was about to scream but, he did the strangest thing… he thanked me. Of course he knocked me out afterwards, but, a part of me knew that he wouldn't give into that curse seal and Orochimaru. That wasn't the end of it either. Later that day, I was in his house, trying to make myself believe that he would be back. I heard someone there in the house with me. I tried to find out who it was but…whoever it was left before I could find out. And, although I wasn't sure, a part of me somehow knew it was Sasuke."

"What made you think that?"

"It might have been a thief that wanted to rob the place with Sasuke gone but when I picked up a broken portrait on the floor, only the bottom corner of the picture was there. I recognized the picture right away. It was the picture of the old team seven. That's when I knew it had to be Sasuke."

Naruto was silent for a while. Then he grinned at Sakura and asked, "You think he'll remember us?"

Sakura smiled back. "I hope so," she said. Lee just kept moving silently. He didn't know what to say right now, or even what to think anymore. He liked Sakura but… it seems she still has a heart for Sasuke. To Lee, Sakura was just another one of his ambitions. He felt hopeless for a while, like he couldn't possibly do anything. But then, his eyes changed and got brighter. 'I'll just deal with this like everything else,' he thought, 'I'll just work harder to make Sakura-chan notice me.'

* * *

They finally reached the bridge connecting the wave country with the eastern peninsula. (A/N: I believe this is where the bridge is located on the map of the Naruto world. Correct me if I'm wrong.) The looked completely different from when Naruto and Sakura had been there last. The bridge was very busy. There were wagons, people, and caravan's going both ways along the bridge.

"Finally, we're here," said Lee.

"Wow, the bridge is really busy now. I can see how important this bridge is to the wave country. But…I still can't believe they named the bridge after you Naruto," exclaimed Sakura.

"What did you expect," he gloated, "I'm so great, it would be an insult to name it anything else." Both Sakura and Lee sweat-dropped.

"Well, let's go find Sasuke," said Sakura, "we'll start where Tsunade mentioned, fifty miles east of this bridge right? Let's head out."

------

Sasuke walked along, heading towards his usual training field. His thoughts completely focused until he felt a slight shiver throughout his body. 'Itachi...' he thought, 'I know your close, I can feel you. This time, I will avenge my family, and KILL YOU.'

* * *

Orichimaru was sitting at a desk, writing something down in a scroll. Beside him, stood Kabuto, Orochimaru's right hand man. And across from the desk stood a sound ninja.

"Here are the preparations you are to make," ordered Orochimaru to the sound ninja as he gave the ninja the scroll, "be sure they are completed on time."

"Yes, Orochimaru-dono." With that, the sound ninja left.

"Are you sure we have a large enough force for the invasion?" asked Kabuto.

"You doubt me, Kabuto?"

"No, not at all. Its just that last time, we failed even though we had the assistance of the Sand."

"KUKUKU! Don't worry Kabuto, once I have 'him' in my possession, the plan will go smoothly," said Orochimaru.

"You mean Uchiha Sasuke…I'm still curious as to why you didn't want to control Sasuke 6 years ago when you had the chance. I know you wouldn't have been able to take his body for a few years but the seal you gave him lets you control him does it not?"

"You are very perceptive, Kabuto. However, I DID want to have him back then, it's just that I couldn't"

"Huh? Why?"

"A had already acquired a new body six years ago... this body and the jutsu can only be performed once every few years."

"Will you be able to take control in the state you're in now? Your body is already deteriorating."

"The seal that Kakashi put on the boy is slowly wearing out. Once it's gone, I'll be able to take complete control of him thanks to the Heaven Curse seal."

"Do you know when, exactly, the seal will completely dissipate?" inquired Kabuto.

"Yes…later tonight," answered Orochimaru in a hungry tone.

(A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I was beginning to think nobody was reading my fic. Glad to hear that you guys are liking it so far. I know some of the characters are a bit OOC (like Lee) but I try. This chapter didn't have any action in it but a lot of information is needed to set up the next few chapters. Also, I set up few relationships in this chapter but I kept them very vague on purpose. I still don't know if I'm going to have romantic relationships at all in this fic since there are already so many fics out there focused on romance. If you think I should have some romance in this story then post it in your review. I promise the next chapter will be action packed and there will be some big surprises.)


	5. False Truths

**False Truths**

Sasuke was at his usual training field, a large portion of the ground still charred from his fight against the ANBU. He had come intending to train as he usually did, but today he was unable to concentrate. His thoughts were filled with THAT day…the day that started everything…the day Itachi killed his parents, his clan. He remembered the day as if it just happened.

He remembered everything exactly…finding his aunts and uncles dead in the streets… finding his parents dead on the floor of his house… Itachi, standing over their bodies.

His mind always wondered why Itachi did it. Why his clan was ruthlessly slaughtered. He remembered the words of his brother clearly. "They were a measuring stick to test myself," was what his brother told him that day. He tried to clear his thoughts but it only caused more memories to flood his head. Thanks to Itachi's Tsukuyomi, he also had memories of how Itachi murdered his parents.

There was once a time when Sasuke had looked up to Itachi as a brother, as someone he could look up to, someone he could hang out with, someone he could… but now, all he felt towards Itachi was pure hatred. It was this hatred that consumed him, that forced him to live, to get stronger. This hatred is what drove him towards his ambition of killing his brother and what pushed him away from everyone else.

Suddenly, a great pain lashed out on the back of his neck. He never felt physical pain this great before but somehow… he just ignored it as if it were nothing. Hatred was all that mattered to him now. "Not enough hatred," he murmured to himself as he just stood there, deep in pain, hatred and inescapable thought.

* * *

Naruto, Lee, and Sakura were still heading towards the field that Tsunade mentioned to them, closely being followed by Itachi and Kisame. The forest they moved through was barren and the trees were leafless. The mist surrounding them wasn't really thick, but it created a heavy atmosphere.

"So, how are we gonna deal with Sasuke if we find him?" asked Naruto

Lee answered him. "Didn't you listen to Tsunade-sama? We're supposed to gather some intelligence on him first, to see if he's in league with Orochimaru or the Akatsuki. Then, we try to convince him to come back to the village."

"If I know Sasuke, he isn't the type of guy to just sit back and listen while we talk," stated Naruto. Sakura just followed, silently. "Hey," Naruto said, "It's just a feeling, but ever since we left the village, I keep thinking we're being followed."

"I noticed it too," agreed Sakura, "I don't know who it is, but I set up a quick trap behind us just in case."

"Huh? When did you set the trap?" asked Naruto surprised.

"When you and Lee were talking," she said, smirking, proud of herself that she was able to set up a decent trap in the blink of an eye.

"Wow, Sakura-chan, I didn't think you were that good with traps,"

Sakura winced at the comment, about to smack Naruto across the head, but she stopped when she saw the lone raven-haired figure standing in the field that they approached. "Sasuke-kun," she muttered as all three of them came to a dead stop.

-----

Itachi, with his Sharingan activated, followed the 3 blurbs of chakra he saw moving through the forest, Kisame following beside him.

"Who are you so interested in, Itachi?" asked Kisame, "It's not like you to delay a mission like this."

"…my little brother," he replied.

"Huh? Him? What do you need him for?"

"Just some…unfinished business," he said coolly. To think he had found his little brother already. He couldn't tell if it was fate or just coincidence. Either way, he didn't care, there was something he needed to take care of before...

"KISAME, TRAP!" Itachi blurted, his thoughts interrupted.

"Huh?" said Kisame as his foot pulled on a wire. "Shit…" Three explosive-tagged kunai flew at Kisame. All three hit him. Itachi jumped down to the forest floor and took cover behind a tree, looking up just in time to see Kisame explode in a violent fashion. 'Kuso.'

------

"He's just standing there," stated Naruto.

"I don't see anyone else with him. I don't sense anyone nearby either," said Lee, "Sakura-chan, what do you think?" Sakura stood there, still in shock, not believing that Sasuke was right in front of her.

"Sakura-chan? You ok?" Sakura was still dazed until an explosion behind them woke her up.

"My trap!" she exclaimed as Naruto looked towards the direction of the explosion.

"They're pretty close to our position," he said, "we should go check it--" he was cut short.

"NARUTO, WATCH OUT!" yelled Lee. Naruto spun around to see several shuriken flying at him.

"DAMMIT," he cursed as Lee tackled him, saving him from the shuriken.

"We can't worry about those people behind us right now," said Lee, "looks like Sasuke knows we're here."

More shuriken flew at them but they dodged.

"Itachi, I know you're there, come out," demanded Sasuke as he threw a few more shuriken.

Naruto dodged them and faced his team. "Itachi? Is he the one following us?"

"How the hell are we supposed to know, Baka," replied Sakura, a little uptight at the moment.

"Dammit, we don't have time for this. You guys stay hidden and keep a lookout for whoever is behind us. I'll go and face Sasuke," said Naruto.

"You sure you can handle him alone?"

"We don't have much of a choice right now. Besides, I haven't been training for nothing. I'll never become Hokage if I can't beat him now. Also, I have a score to settle with him. Anyways, let's move out."

"Hai!" acknowledged both Sakura and Lee as Naruto jumped down and entered the field.

------

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by an explosion in the distance. He immediately looked over and saw shadows moving through the trees. 'Itachi,' he thought. He pulled out a few shuriken and threw them at the moving shadows in the trees. He saw the shadows dodge them. Sasuke grabbed more shuriken and threw them at the still moving shadow. "Itachi, I know you're there, come out," he said. No reply. He reached in his pocket to grab more shuriken. He was about to throw them but was surprised to see a blond haired ninja appear from the forest. 'That's not Itachi,' thought Sasuke, disappointed.

"Hey Sasuke, you bastard. Think you can leave the leaf just like that?" taunted Naruto. Sasuke looked at the loud blond ninja, a look of surprise apparent. Sasuke realized he knew this ninja from somewhere. "Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me? Don't you remember who I am?"

Sasuke took another look at the blond ninja. 'The hair, the whisker marks, the loudness. It has to be…' "Naruto," he finally said.

"Ha! Glad to see you still remember," said Naruto with a smirk

"What are you doing here Naruto?" asked Sasuke, his surprised look changing back to his calm, controlled, almost ignorant look.

"The Hokage sent me to bring you back."

"Hmph, I thought I told the Hokage not to send any more people after me. Well, sorry to disappoint you, Naruto, but I'm not going back. Not until I kill him…"

Naruto was getting pissed. "Dammit Sasuke you bastard, why do you have to be such a selfish ignorant prick! Can't you see that this stupid revenge of yours will get you nothing?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"Konoha's in trouble right now," answered Naruto, "The sound AND the Akatsuki are on the move. I hate to admit it but we might need your help to beat them."

Sasuke stood silent for a while. "I don't care about that," he replied, a tone of mocking indifferent.

Naruto's anger reached it's peak. "DAMN YOU SASUKE! CAN'T YOU FORGET YOUR STUPID REVENGE FOR ONE FUCKING SECOND?" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke looked up slowly at Naruto, their eyes meeting before he calmly said, "…no."

That was all it took, Naruto snapped. Whipping out a kunai, Naruto charged at Sasuke with a deafening battle roar. Sasuke leapt out of the way, his Sharingan activating at the same time. He remembered the time Naruto fought against Gaara six years ago, remembered the huge amount of red chakra that he had. Now, his chakra was easily twice what it was at that time and wasn't the least bit tainted with the red chakra he saw from the past. 'Damn, where did that dobe get that much chakra," he thought.

"Let's see what you got, dobe-kun," taunted Sasuke.

"I'LL CRUSH YOU, YOU BASTARD," Naruto yelled as he put his hands up in a seal. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU." Twenty new Narutos appeared. The clones charged at Sasuke head on while he saw the original Naruto begin performing hand seals.

'Shit, gotta stop Naruto from finishing,' he thought as he blocked several kicks coming from under him, forcing him into the air. 'Looks like I gotta take care of these clones first.' A clone jumped up to meet Sasuke in mid air while five clones jumped up to attack him from behind. With the sharingan, Sasuke easily predicted the clone's movements. He blocked the attack from the clone in front of him and, using it as a midair platform, he flipped backwards above the five clones behind him while performing hand seals of his own. Sasuke finished his seals right when he was facing the Naruto clones on the ground. "KATON: GOUKAKYOU NO JUTSU." A huge fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth and smashed into the ground, forcing the clones to disappear in puffs of smoke. Sasuke landed with five Naruto clones also landing around him. 'Hmm...surrounded,' thought Sasuke as he glanced over at Naruto, 'He's still making seals? I have to finish these clones off quickly.' Suddenly a pair of hands emerged from under Sasuke's feet and held them. "WHAT?" Sasuke looked down in surprise at the clone that held his feet, the clone just grinned back.

"We got you now, Sasuke," said the underground clone while the other five dashed towards Sasuke with their kunai extended.

'Dammit, can't move, have to use that jutsu,' Sasuke thought as his hands came together in a flurry of seals. Twenty seals and half-a-second later, a ring of fire appeared floating around Sasuke's waist. "KATON: NOBA NO JUTSU!" he yelled as the thin ring of fire suddenly burst outward and expanded in every direction. Sasuke smiled as he saw the looks on the faces of the clones as they were cut in half, burned, and disappeared in puffs of smoke. The clone holding his legs also disappeared from the intense heat. Sasuke looked at Naruto. Naruto's hands were stopped at his usual kage bunshin seal.

"TEIKIATSU BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" yelled Naruto as visible wind-like chakra started converging at a point a few feet front of him. The violent winds quickly took form, into the shape of Naruto. "Hey Sasuke, meet my new buddy," said Naruto.

------

Itachi looked at the spot where Kisame had been apparently blown up. All that was there was a burnt up smoking log. "Kisame, come out. We don't have all day." Kisame emerged from behind a tree.

"Kawarimi," said Kisame grinning, "saves at least one ninja every day." Itachi ignored the comment and looked towards the field with his Sharingan.

"Looks like Naruto and my brother have begun fighting. The other two of his team are hiding in the trees just outside the field. I'll let you take care of those two on Naruto's team. I'll handle Naruto and my little brother."

"How come YOU get to have the better fight?" argued Kisame.

"We aren't here to have fun, Kisame. Just make sure the other two don't get in the way, you can kill them if you want."

"Heh, better than doing nothing I guess."

"Move out," said Itachi.

------

Lee and Sakura watched in awe as Sasuke defeated all of Naruto's shadow clones.

"What was that technique?" asked Lee, seeing the burst of fire coming out from Sasuke.

"I've never seen anything like it before," replied Sakura, "It looks like Sasuke wasn't just playing around while he was alone."

"Yeah, but…Naruto wasn't playing around either. Look," said Lee. Sakura glanced back at the fight. A couple of feet in front of Naruto seemed like a condensed torrent of wind, only it was roughly in the shape of Naruto.

"I heard of this technique. Tsunade explained it to me once. She said it was a high level forbidden jutsu originating from the whirlpool country. It based on knowledge of the kage bunshin and the Rasengan. How did Naruto…?" said Sakura. "That technique is said to use up twice as much chakra as a large summoning. She had always known that Naruto had a lot of chakra, but this was unbelievable.

Sakura and Lee just continued to gawk at the fight, not noticing Kisame, who was standing right behind them.

"So…who's winning?" asked Kisame, pulling out his giant sword.

Shuriken came flying out at Kisame immediately from both Lee and Sakura. Kisame easily blocked them with his sword. They both looked at Kisame and noticed his black cloak with red clouds and a head protector with a gash across the symbol.

"You're from the Akatsuki!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Heheh, so you noticed…" he said while absently fixing the bandages on his sword.

"Why are you after us?" Lee asked.

"We could care less about you guys. We're after the Kyuubi kid."

"Kyuubi kid?" Sakura asked, confused.

"…that blonde kid on your team. I think his name was Marudo or something."

"Naruto?" they both said.

"Ya, that's it, Naruto. I'm surprised you didn't know he had the nine-tails in him. Doesn't matter now anyways, I'm here to kill you." Kisame said as he slashed his Samehada at Lee and Sakura. Both jumped away from the slash, Lee disappearing as Sakura began performing hand seals. "Damn, that kid's pretty fast… but not fast enough," noted Kisame, anticipating Lee's attack.

Appearing right in front of Kisame, Lee threw a punch. Though the punch was blocked by Kisame's Samehada, the force of the impact sent him flying back. Lee ran in after him and gave him another punch. This time, Kisame didn't block it as Lee's fist went through Kisame's chest.

"You're Akatsuki? You seem weak," Lee stated as he looked up at Kisame. Kisame just grinned at Lee before turning into water. "A water clone?" Lee looked back to see another Kisame behind Sakura who was too busy performing hand seals to notice. Lee watched in horror as Kisame thrust his sword right through Sakura's back, impaling her and pinning her to the tree, leaves floating down all around them.

"SAAKURAAA!" yelled Lee desperately as he saw blood gushing out from her back and stomach.

"Too easy," said Kisame, a cocky shark-like grin on his face.

------

Sasuke stared at the Naruto's new clone with his Sharingan. It was nothing like Naruto's shadow clones. This clone was made of pure wind, constantly blowing in every direction. Even the ground around the clone was being torn apart by the extreme air pressure.

'Looks like close combat is a no against that thing. I'll just have to burn it up,' thought Sasuke. Sasuke performed another set of hand seals.

"KATON: GORYUKA NO JUTSU" The words seemed to echo as fire erupted out from Sasuke's mouth, splitting into several portions. Each portion quickly took the form of a dragon's head as they all rushed towards Naruto's clone of wind. Seeing an opening, the real Naruto dashed around, attempting to get into a flanking positioning while creating a few more shadow clones in the process.

The fireballs hit the wind clone seconds later. However, the effect wasn't exactly what Sasuke had anticipated. The clone burned alright, it just didn't burn out. Sasuke grimaced, realizing he had just made it worse. Naruto didn't let him dwell on it, however, as he used the opportunity his clone created to attack head on.

With his Sharingan, Sasuke easily predicted the movements of all his adversaries, cloned or not. But he couldn't keep up forever; the pressure from Naruto was immense. The fire clone was Sasuke's first priority. Even after dodging an attack from it, the intense heat and chaotic nature of its chakra still managed to burn Sasuke every time.

Water. It was all he could think of. He just needed a window of opportunity. And Sasuke found it.

Naruto didn't let up, flurries of fists and feet kept Sasuke busy, movements seemingly in perfect synchronization with each other. Sasuke would destroy a clone, only to have Naruto instantly summon more. But with his Sharingan, Sasuke quickly found a pattern. Though only for a few seconds at most, Naruto and his shadow clones would back off to avoid getting burned by Naruto's own fire clone. And those precious few seconds were all Sasuke needed.

'NOW!' Sasuke focused his chakra into both of his arms, lightning-like chakra started crackling around them almost immediately. With his arms, hands, and even fingers sped up from the chakra of the Chidori, it didn't even take him a second to perform the twenty necessary hand-seals of his next jutsu...

"SUITON: SUIRYUUDAN NO JUTSU!" Naruto was caught completely surprised. He had instantly recognized Sasuke's Chidori and made the necessary preparations to counter it. But it never came. Instead, the fog around them disappeared, converging in front of Sasuke, forming a Dragon. Not only that, it was electrified from Sasuke's Chidori.

'What's up with Sasuke and dragons,' thought Naruto as he willed his clones a retreat and regroup order. The dragon of water rushed forth blindingly fast towards Naruto's fire-clone.

Sasuke was just as surprised as Naruto, he hadn't expected his Chidori to merge with the dragon. It was just icing on the cake. 'Cakewalk,' thought Sasuke. His confidence was quickly erased, however, as the Dragon hit Naruto's fire-wind clone.

The force of the impact was tremendous as the ground shook in its wake. But Naruto's fire clone was still there, seemingly undamaged, and now electrified.

'WHAT THE HELL!?' The clone seemed to absorb different types of chakra into itself. 'What a fearsome technique,' thought Sasuke, seeing Naruto in a new light. He wasn't weak. Though surprised by the resilience of the clone, the situation now actually gave Sasuke the advantage. The clone was unable to absorb the water element, instead, the water dragon had completely evaporated around them, forming a thick fog, effectively blinding Naruto and his clones. Sasuke, on the other hand, could see perfectly with his Sharingan.

Naruto was clever, though, as he and his clones all started to create Rasengan to clear the fog.

Realizing this, Sasuke made his move. Using his Sharingan, he located the real Naruto. 'Only one chance,' thought Sasuke as he ran towards his blonde assailant.

'Only a few more seconds,' thought Naruto as his Rasengan quickly dissipated the fog around him. It would prove to be Naruto's downfall, however, as the fog melted away into a vision of red and black. Standing an inch away was Sasuke, Naruto staring right into his ex-friend's tripled tomoe eyes.

'Got you, dobe-kun,' Naruto didn't even have time to react as incredible pain lashed out of every single molecule of his body. The rasengan in Naruto's palm dissipated as he blacked out, his clones disappearing in puffs of smoke. Naruto's wind clone, however, met a more violent end, exploding in a burst of wind, flame, and electricity in random directions. Sasuke did his best to avoid it, but the impact hit him hard as he was cut, burned, and electrocuted all at once. He too, fell to the floor, unconscious.

-----

'Sakura! She died! She's dead. She'll never...' tears streamed down Lee's face unknowingly.

Lee was still in shock from the sight of Sakura's death. Shock turned to sadness, sadness flared into anger, anger fanned the flames of intense hate. Lee glared at Kisame with that intense hatred in his eyes; Kisame just grinned back tauntingly. Lee charged.

"AAARGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Lee's battle cry was deafening.

Right when he was about to land a hit, Lee disappeared and reappeared behind Kisame, throwing a kick. Kisame just barely dodged it. More attacks came at Kisame. Left, Right, Front, Back, attacks came from everywhere as Lee continued to appear and disappear around Kisame. Kisame managed to block a few of the attacks that Lee made, but in the end, Lee was too fast for Kisame. Lee finished off his assault with a kick to Kisame's stomach, sending him flying through a few trees.

'Kuso,' Kisame quickly got to his feet and saw Lee running towards him. Kisame's hands came together and made several seals. "SUITON: SUIJINHEKI!" yelled Kisame as Lee punched the wall of water that had suddenly surrounded Kisame. 'Have to reach my sword,' he thought as his hands performed more hand seals. "SUIKOUDAN NO JUTSU," he yelled as the mist around them gathered forming a giant shark made out of water which rushed out at Lee. Lee had just barely dodged the water shark as it flew at him, tearing down every tree in its path.

'Where is he?' thought Lee, looking around.

"Hahaha. I'll show you the true powers of my Samehada," said Kisame, holding the handle of the sword that impaled Sakura. Soon enough, a large amount of chakra was visible around the sword and it transferred into Kisame. Kisame let go of his sword, his body glowing with chakra.

'His chakra is huge,' thought Lee. Lee disappeared then reappeared behind Kisame again, throwing a kick at his back. This time, Kisame blocked his attack like its nothing.

"The Samehada doesn't just absorb chakra," Kisame said, "It also stores their chakra and gives it to me when needed." Kisame blocked another attack from Lee then counterattacked with a punch of his own, sending Lee soaring.

'Uh…the chakra made him faster and stronger,' thought Lee, 'I have to release the gates.' "INITIAL GATE, HEAL GATE, RELEASE!" he said as he regained full strength. Kisame came at him. "LIFE GATE, RELEASE!" yelled Lee. Lee's skin turned red, veins became visible on his face, and chakra began pouring out of him. Lee blocked Kisame's attack with relative ease. Both fighters moved in blurs as they clashed. 'I can't keep this up. Gotta open the fourth gate.' "HARM GATE, RELEASE!" Nothing happened. 'Damn,' he thought, 'I must still recovering from opening the wonder gate. I can't get the harm gate open.'

"You're fast, kid. But not fast enough," said Kisame as he punched Lee hard, catching him off guard. Lee went flying through several trees, coughing up blood when he finally landed.

'He's faster than me,' thought Lee as he stood up, his power slowly fading, 'even with three of the gates open, I can't match him.' Kisame appeared behind him, punching Lee in the back, sending him flying back towards the field. Lee struggled back to his standing position, too battered to do anything else. Kisame charged at him. 'This must be it,' he thought as he just stood there, staring at Kisame, not noticing the firestorm that raged behind him or the leaves that were floating down around him.

"Looks like its over for you, kid," said Kisame as he leapt up and punched…nothing?

'Huh?' thought Lee, confuse as he saw Kisame throwing punches and kicks at the air directly above Lee. 'No time to think, now's my chance,' he thought as he gathered what was left of his strength. Lee rushed at Kisame and threw a powerful kick, sending Kisame flying into a tree, killing him.

Lee limped back towards Sakura's body, tears in his eyes. The sword was still in her, pinning her, face first, into the tree. The bleeding had stopped but Sakura's skin was now a pale blue, her feet soaked in her own blood. "Sakura-chan…," he started, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." Now fully crying, he continued, "Sakura-chan, I never told you this…but I…I…" he hesitated for a minute before finishing. "Sakura-chan, I Lo--" he stopped when he heard a voice around him.

"KAI!" it said before he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Sakura smiling at him without a scratch on her. Lee looked back towards the tree. The sword was stuck inside the tree but Sakura's dead body had vanished.

"Sorry about that Lee," she said, "The genjutsu I used to make me look like I was dead had a wide area of effect and you and Kisame were too close together. But not bad huh? I came up with that genjutsu by myself," she gloated. Lee just stood there, still in shock. "Um..Lee, are you ok? I thought you would've seen the leaves falling down and noticed it was genjutsu."

Lee finally snapped back to reality. "The Leaves!" he remembered. He looked around the forest around him and remembered that none of these trees had leaves to begin with. "I can't believe I missed that."

"By the way, what were you trying to say before I released the genjutsu on you?" she asked.

"I-I was," he started as a blush crept up on his face. "I tried to tell you that I…" Before he could finish, Itachi appeared behind them, knocking them both out with quick blows to the neck.

"Kisame," he calmly stated, "you can come out now." Kisame made himself visible, still grinning.

"Huh, guess they were a bit stronger than I thought," he laughed, "They even took out my mud-clone." He glanced at the Kisame Lee had battered as it returned to its original liquid state. "So, we killing these two?"

Itachi shook his head. "Leave them on the field next to Sasuke."

"Huh!? Why?" asked Kisame, confused.

"They'll be useful later on,"

Kisame just scratched his head. "Well, whatever," he agreed, clearly not caring."

"I'll take Naruto back to headquarters," stated Itachi, "As for our other target..."

"Heh, I'll take care of it," answered Kisame as he removed the Samehada from the tree. "Hopefully the he'll be more of a challenge than those two."

"Remember, Kisame, ALIVE..."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. I learnt my lesson from the last time." He complied, roughly grabbing Sakura and Lee, dropping them beside Sasuke's unconscious body. He paused for a second... 'Weird. The sword... it actually acknowledges this guy.' He took another look at Lee. 'Hehehe, this guy is pretty interesting.' Taking the sword from his back, Kisame thrust it into ground beside Lee. "I'll let you borrow it until we meet again," he told the unconscious body, "you better take good care of it." With that, Kisame disappeared.

Itachi went over to Naruto, searching for the scroll Tsunade had given them. Finding it, he opened the scroll, taking a casual glance at what Tsunade wrote. He knew what it said. In fact, Itachi was the person who wrote this scroll, entrusting it to the Sandaime before he left the village.

Concentrating chakra into his finger, Itachi wrote in a final passage before closing it and throwing it on Sasuke. Satisfied, he then slung Naruto's body over his shoulder and vanished without another thought.

------

Sasuke was the first to wake up. "Uhh.." he grunted as the memories of what happened came back to him. A scroll fell into his lap as he sat up. 'Where did this come from?' he thought. He opened it and saw nothing except for a leaf symbol. However, he felt chakra coming out of the scroll.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and clearly saw the glowing words imprinted on the scroll. He read it:

------

_This scroll is meant for the eyes of Uchiha Sasuke, the other surviving member of the Uchiha clan. Within this scroll holds the true fate that befell the Uchiha clan, written in the words of Uchiha Itachi._

_Sandaime._

_Sasuke, if you are reading this, it means you are ready to know of the truth behind the murder of the clan._

_The truth is…I did not kill our parents or anyone else in our clan._

_That morning started out normal enough. You asked me for shuriken lessons but I declined, telling you I'd teach you next time. I know I've always been…distant to you, but the fact is, ever since I met…that person…I've been distant to everyone._

_I first met 'her' when I was seven, the day I first became a Genin. Her name was Kairi and we were assigned to the same team. She seemed normal enough, her skills were above-average and she was inexplicably loud and outgoing. However, there was always something dark and foreboding about her, hidden beneath her exterior persona. She felt almost like the time I met Orochimaru. I thought nothing of it and we quickly became close friends and rivals. We fought a lot and found ourselves equal in combat with each other. Our rivalry battles were always long and hard, never with a clear winner but we both enjoyed it._

_One day, a year later, our team had just finished another mission and our sensei dismissed us. Kairi and I walked towards the training field to train as usual. When we got to the field, a shinobi from the hidden stone attacked us, almost killing Kairi in the process. It was at this time that my Sharingan was first activated. I easily defeated the stone ninja. Kairi was mostly unharmed but from that day on, I sensed a little contempt from her. It got worse._

_We continued to have our rivalry matches. However, with the Sharingan I beat her almost effortlessly every time. And because of this, she slowly grew distant. Foolishly, I tried to fix this by purposely losing to her. She found out, however, and it was then I realized the damage I had done to her. On that same day, she unleashed a power I've never seen before and we fought again. Her new power was too much and I found myself defeated._

_It changed my life forever, what she said to me that day. "You owe me, Itachi, for all the pain you've caused me. I hope you're prepared." Our relationship wavered, became awkward._

_After that day, I began working as hard as I could to improve my skills. I forced myself to become stronger in order to keep up with her. Because of my hard work and my Sharingan, I advanced rapidly, becoming a Chuunin the next year. Of course, everyone recognized my growth. However, my recognition had more to do with our Uchiha heritage more than anything else as nobody noticed Kairi who was growing as fast, if not faster, than I was. _

_My growth came at a price. I ended up neglecting everything except those that could make me stronger. Friends, family, everyone that was weaker than me became burdens. It was all I could do to keep up with her. _

_Four years later, when I was thirteen, I became an ANBU. Kairi had also become an ANBU and she was assigned to be my partner for an upcoming mission. Outside the village, Kairi suddenly attacked me. We fought a long and hard battle but Kairi's power was still too much for me and I was knocked unconscious. _

_I awoke to find myself back outside the Uchiha village, the bodies of our clan around me. I saw our parents, bound and gagged but still alive. I tried to save them but Kairi knocked me back and killed them right in front of my eyes. At that moment I felt sorrow, anger, and hatred all at once, but I suppressed them all. Kairi just looked at me. _

"_We're even," was all she said. She gave me an offer. She asked me to join her, or to die like the rest of my clan. I was prepared to die then and there, but the feeling of vengeance swept over me. When she left me to think about it, I saw you heading back from your shuriken lessons. The truth is that you were weak, Sasuke, and there was nobody to look over after I had left. So I grabbed the bodies of our parents and brought them home, making it seem like they had just been killed when you walked in. Then, when you entered, I used Tsukuyomi to make you believe I had killed them. I told you to hate me, to survive if you wanted to kill me. I knew that if I turned you into an avenger, you would grow stronger and survive. This was my way to protect you and I know you'll always hate me for it. After all, what are brothers for? As for me, I joined her organization, the Akatsuki, in hopes of someday defeating her to avenge our clan._

_Gomen, Sasuke._

_--Itachi--_

_Sasuke, I know you must have gone through a lot. I know of what happened to your clan years ago and I can also understand how you must feel towards Itachi. However, there are more pressing matters at hand. I wish for you to return to Konoha with Naruto, Sakura, and Lee. You have already betrayed Konoha by becoming a missing nin. However, I am willing to overlook this because I know of Orochimaru's seal and also of its capability to corrupt a person. By not following Orochimaru, you have proven to us that you may yet be trusted. Also, I have found a way to remove the seal without killing Orochimaru. If you return to help us against the upcoming threat, I will remove the seal._

_--Tsunade--_

_If you still wish to kill me, return to Konoha with the other two on Naruto's team. I know Orochimaru is planning to attack Konohagakure again. Only when you kill Orochimaru will I face you. I refuse to fight anyone tainted with Orochimaru's seal._

_--Itachi--_

------

Sasuke finished reading the scroll. Riddled with doubt and confusion He didn't know what to think of his brother anymore. Sasuke still hated his brother, but now he had almost no reason to hate him anymore. He thought about what Tsunade had written. A way to remove the seal without killing Orochimaru was tempting. However, he wanted to kill Orochimaru anyways. Sasuke still had mixed thoughts about Itachi, about Konoha, about…everything. Sasuke just lied down again. Beside him where Sakura and Lee, still unconscious, but Sasuke didn't even notice them. Instead, he just lay there, devoid of feeling and lost in thought.

* * *

Definitions/Technique guide (from my very limited knowledge of Japanese):

ANBU – elite ninjas meant to keep the peace in and between villages.

Baka – idiot

Dobe – blockhead

Gomen – sorry

Gamabunta – the frog boss that Naruto and Jiraiya are able to summon.

Teikiatsu bunshin no jutsu (Cyclone Replication Technique) – A high level technique that creates a clone made purely of swirling wind-element chakra. As it is already in a chaotic self-damaging state, it is almost impossible to stop it before it consumes itself.

Kai – counter (I think)

Katsuyu – The slug boss that Tsunade is able to summon.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Replication Technique) – creates multiple "real" clones of yourself. Their power is said to be evenly distributed between the user and the clones. They disappear if given a clean hit.

Katon: Goukakyou no jutsu (Fire Element: Powerful Fireball Technique) – A fire technique where the user breathes out a giant ball of intense fire.

Katon: Noba no jutsu (Fire Element: Nova Technique) – A fire technique that creates a ring of fire around the user. The ring then rapidly expands in every direction with a burst, cutting and burning everything in its path. Has limited range.

Kuso: Damn

Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eye) – A bloodline limit technique borne in the eyes. The sharingan allows the user to read and copy all ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. (note: bloodline limit abilities cannot be copied) The sharingan allows the user to see the chakra inside of people to a certain extent and also has an ability of hypnosis which lets the user suggest thoughts and actions to the opponent.

Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release Barrier) – When this jutsu is performed, a shield of water surrounds the user, blocking any outside attacks. Doesn't last very long.

Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu (Water Element: Water Dragon Blast Technique) – A water technique that creates a dragon made out of water from the surrounding air or bodies of water. The dragon is then sent towards the target.

Suikoudan no jutsu (Water Shark technique) – A water technique creating a shark out of water which is blasted at the opponent.

Samehada – The giant bandage wrapped sword that Kisame carries around. The sword can absorb chakra and has rough skin. (Can also store absorbed chakra and give it to the user in my fic)

Teikaitsu no jutsu (Cyclone Technique) – A technique where the user spins at an extremely fast pace, creating a cyclone in the sky that falls down around the user. Usually used as a shielding/barrier technique.

Tsukuyomi – An Uchiha bloodline limit technique that forces the opponent into a dark world controlled by the user. To the opponent, it may seem that they were there for days when actually it only lasts for a few seconds. This technique requires direct eye contact and mange sharingan (mastery level sharingan).


	6. Converging Paths

**Converging Paths**

Sounds of growling, explosions and yelling were heard in the distance. Naruto realized he was he was being carried by someone and he didn't know who it was. He tried to speak, to look at person carrying him, but all he could do was look up to the sky. Echoes of voices were heard all around him as they moved.

"Don't let it get closer to the village," he heard a voice yell.

"We need to hold it here until the he arrives," screamed another. Naruto had no idea who they were or where he was." More screams and yells were heard as another explosion sounded off in the distance.

'What the…?' thought Naruto as the person carrying him came to a dead stop. Naruto's vision was suddenly filled with a giant fox. 'KYUUBI!' he thought as he blacked out.

When he regained consciousness, he saw a man with spiky yellow hair. There was a Konoha forehead protector on his forehead and he wore a red cape tipped with a white flame design at the bottom of the cape. The man smiled at Naruto who couldn't do anything but lay there.

Naruto recognized the yellow-haired ninja as the Yondaime and he realized there was still somebody carrying him. Naruto tried to say something but all he heard from himself was crying. He was transferred into the arms of the Yondaime.

'The hell…,' he thought, 'I'm a baby?' He noticed a few things as the Yondaime turned Naruto around. In front of him stood a kunoichi, her flame-red hair billowing in the wind. 'Huh?' thought Naruto, 'She's crying?' He looked closer... she looked familiar? The second thing he noticed was the ground. It was moving and it seemed like red fur was growing from it. Finally, Naruto realized they were on top of the Kyuubi when he heard the all-too-familiar growls echoing all around them.

"Don't cry, Naruto. You'll be a hero for this. Everyone will recognize you." As the Fourth said this, the Kunoichi beside him sobbed even harder.

Suddenly, he felt something enter his back and come out through his stomach. The pain he felt from it was great. Naruto tried to scream but, again, all he heard from himself was crying. Somehow, Naruto was able to look down at his stomach and he saw a transparent arm reaching out of his stomach, grabbing the ground of red fur. 'What the hell is this?' he thought as he watched the arm pull out what looked like the spirit from the Kyuubi. The arm, holding Kyuubi's spirit, pulled back into him and he found himself engulfed in the Kyuubi's huge spirit. Now, the pain he felt in his stomach was unbearable as the spirit around him was pulled in towards his stomach. The pain was too much for Naruto to bear and he found himself trying to scream. Then all of a sudden…

…Naruto woke up, sweating. 'Just…a dream,' he thought, panting. Finally calmed down, the memories of his mission flooded back to his mind. "SASUKE!" he yelled out as he remembered the fight against his rival. Naruto looked around. He was on a bed in a small room. There was a table beside him and on it was a little note. Naruto got up, picked up the paper and read it.

_Welcome,_

_We here at Wave Country Inn hope that you enjoy your stay._

'What the…?' he thought, 'an Inn? Did Sakura and Lee leave me here?'

"So…you're finally awake," said a voice from the doorway. Naruto looked over and reached for a kunai when he saw Itachi. "Don't worry," assured Itachi, "I'm not going to kill you. If I had wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already."

"What the hell do you want?" asked Naruto angrily.

"I'm here to tell you something you might be interested in," replied Itachi.

"Huh?"

"It's about the Kyuubi inside of you."

A look of surprise appeared on Naruto's face. "The Kyuubi? What about it?"

"If you want to know, you will have to come with me. If not, you may return to your village, empty handed. The decision is yours," bluffed Itachi attempting to persuade Naruto with a choice. Itachi knew that he needed Naruto for his plan to work.

Naruto was intrigued. The kyuubi inside of him had grown dormant over the past year. He didn't know why, but, he could no longer draw upon the Kyuubi's power at will anymore. In fact, he didn't even know if it was still there or not. However, Naruto was still suspicious of Itachi. He was, after all, the man who betrayed Konoha and killed Sasuke's entire clan.

"How can I trust you?" asked Naruto.

"You're alive aren't you? Also, the other two members of your team should be heading back to Konoha by now with my brother. I could have killed them if I wanted to."

"That doesn't prove I can trust you. How do I know that they're alive? For all I know, they could be dead and you could just be lying."

Now Itachi was starting to get a bit annoyed. There was no way he could prove he didn't kill Naruto's team-mates. Plus, being an S-class criminal, Naruto couldn't exactly trust his word. "Doesn't it feel like the Kyuubi isn't there anymore?" asked Itachi.

Now Naruto was surprised. 'How would Itachi know about that?' thought Naruto. "How did you know?" he asked.

"As I said before, I'll tell you all I know if you come with me."

Naruto considered the offer. "Where exactly are you going?" he asked.

"…wind country," he answered, "…to the Akatsuki."

"But what about Konoha? I have to help defend the village. There's no way I'm going with you knowing that Konoha might be attacked by the sound and your organization."

"We were only after you. As for the sound, I'm sure Konoha can handle them."

Naruto didn't believe it. "Hah! I could care less about the Kyuubi knowing that the village is in trouble. There's no way I'm going with you knowing that Konoha is being attacked, even if it's about the Kyuubi." he stated as he headed towards the door.

Itachi considered knocking Naruto out and taking him by force or using the Sharingan to hypnotize him. However, he thought it best to gain the blonde boy's trust so there would be no conflict later on. "I'll give you another offer," said Itachi, "I'll come with you to Konoha and help drive out the sound in Konoha. However, you must come with me afterwards to the Akatsuki."

Naruto thought about it for a while. If Konoha IS attacked, having a dangerous S-class criminal helping the leaf wouldn't be a bad idea. Also, he wanted to know what was wrong with the Kyuubi inside of him and he was curious to see the rest of the Akatsuki. "Hmm…I accept your offer," said Naruto.

"Good, here…" said Itachi, handing Naruto an ominous looking black cloak with red clouds imprinted on it, and a straw hat. "…You must wear these while in Konoha."

"Huh? But why?" asked Naruto.

"I don't want to draw attention while we're there. It would be bad if I were found in Konoha. After all, I am a criminal am I not? Also, it will allow you to leave Konoha easily afterwards since nobody will know you were even there."

Naruto still didn't trust Itachi, but he agreed with the Uchiha's logic. "Alright," agreed Naruto who started to put on his new outfit.

------

Sasuke was still lying on the field, reading the scroll over and over again, still debating whether or not to return to the village. His first choice would be not to go back to the village. Sasuke wanted to find this…Kairi that Itachi told him about in the scroll. However, he didn't have any leads or connections to the Akatsuki except for his brother.

Then there was Orochimaru. Over the past year, Sasuke noticed that the sudden lashes of pain on the back of his neck have become stronger and more frequent. Sasuke didn't know when Orochimaru will try to take over his body again but he knew it would come soon. Itachi and the fifth said that Orochimaru might attack the village. If so, it would be his chance to end this curse seal business and kill Orochimaru. After all, he still had his revenge to accomplish, and being the egocentric person he was…there was no way he would let go of his revenge. Even if he did fail to kill Orochimaru, the fifth said she had a way to remove the curse seal anyways.

'Looks like I have to head back to the village,' he thought to himself as he got up. The field he stood on once was filled with flowers and lush green grass. Now, it looked more like a burnt up barren wasteland. Smoke was still rising from the charred Earth and the trail of molten rock that Naruto's fire clone created had finally cooled down. The fog had cleared up and Sasuke realized that it was still only the afternoon.

Looking around, he finally noticed the two ninja that were lying beside him. He recognized Sakura right away, her pink hair a dead giveaway. He then took a look at the black haired ninja beside her. 'Hmm…green jumpsuit, thick brows. It must be…Lee,' he concluded. 'Kuso, they're still out cold.' Sasuke picked them both up and headed for his house.

------

Tsunade was at her desk. There was a hint of worry in her eyes and in her office stood all the jounins in Konoha.

"As you already know," started Tsunade, "both the village of the sound and the Akatsuki are on the move at the moment. I'm still not sure about the Akatsuki or their intentions but the sound definitely look like their preparing for attack. It looks like Orochimaru has gathered quite a large force of shinobi. According to our intelligence reports, there will be over a hundred sound shinobi attacking, most of which will be chuunin level but expect many jounin level ninja as well. Not only that, several of our own jounin are still out on missions. Kakashi and Kurenai are still on their mission and won't be back for a few days. Gai and Asuma won't be back until next week and neither will Naruto, Sakura, or Lee. Neji and Shino should be returning from their mission tonight. I Expect Hinata and Shikamaru to be back since they are the ones spying on the sound. Also, I have sent some scouts to locate Jiraiya."

"But that still only leaves us with eight jounins and forty-eight chuunins if the sound attack today," said Shizune, "Also, seeing how Orochimaru failed his last attempt, he will no doubt be more careful and will not likely underestimate us."

"Your right, Shizune, but there isn't much we can do in this situation. Konoha's forces have been dramatically weakened since the last invasion from the sound and six years wasn't enough to bring us back to the strength we were at before."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Our first priority, as always, will be the evacuation of the civilians to the designated evacuation areas. I'll have three ANBU squads patrol the perimeter outside of Konoha to set up traps in the outlying forests. The other two ANBU squads will be put on standby until an attack commences."

"What are "we" going to do?"

"Since there is such a large force of Sound shinobi, I have split our forces up into large groups. Each of you jounin will lead a group of six chuunin. Once Neji, Shino, Hinata, and Shikamaru return, there will be eight groups of seven. Each group will be responsible for a section of the village as indicated here," she explained, holding up a map of the village. "Remember to help out the groups around you if needed. The groups have already been assigned and the chuunin are awaiting just outside the hokage monument. Once you have your groups set up, inform the civilians in each area to prepare for evacuation, but don't start evacuating them until we know that an attack is imminent. Remember that we'll have to do this fast to avoid any casualties."

"And you, Hokage-sama?"

"Me? I'll be helping out groups here and there. Also…" she continued, as her expression grew even more serious, "I'll face Orochimaru." A look of concern flashed across the jounins' faces but Tsunade just smiled. "I'll be fine," she said, imitating Naruto's confidence. "If there aren't any further questions, please start immediately, we can't afford to waste any time.

"HAI!" they all said before they left.

------

Sakura woke up. She didn't know who knocked her out, but she was still a bit dazed from the blow. She found herself lying on the floor in a small, dank room. The house looked like it would fall apart at any time. There were holes and cracks on the ceilings and walls.

Beside her, Lee was lying on the floor, still unconscious. 'Where's Naruto?' she thought. Sakura looked through the open door and was surprised to see Sasuke in another room, packing weapons and scrolls into his bag.

Sasuke saw that Sakura was awake and walked into the room. "How are you, Sakura? It's been a while." Sakura just stared at him in disbelief. "You remember me don't you?" he asked.

"Sasuke-kun"

"Good to see that you're ok. Lee should be waking up soon as well. Looks like I'll be returning to Konohagakure with you guys." He said in an indifferent tone.

"Where's Naruto?"

"…I'm not sure. I think my brother has taken him, I don't know why." Sasuke answered as he started to walk away, "We'll leave as soon as Lee wakes up."

"Wait, Sasuke!" called Sakura.

Sasuke stopped. "What is it?"

"Are you really coming back to the village?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'll only be there to finish my business with Orochimaru. Once that's done, I'll probably be gone again." He said coldly.

"Why…," she started, "Why did you leave us Sasuke?" However, in her mind, she really wanted to ask, 'Why did you leave me?'

Sasuke ignored the question, leaving the room without another word.

'Sasuke…' she thought. Sakura didn't know what to say to Sasuke at the moment. She wanted to tell him how much she missed him, how much she wanted to see him again. But now that Sasuke was right in front of her, she was blank. Sasuke was still the calm, collected and cold person he was before. In fact, he had probably become even colder now that he was alone for six years.

But even so…even after six years, she somehow still had feelings for the Uchiha. She didn't know why, maybe it was because of the last time they met. Maybe it was the bit of warmth she felt from him beneath his cold exterior. Sakura decided to sort it out later and she turned her attention to Lee who was just waking up.

"Lee, are you alright?"

"Ugh…Sakura-chan?" Lee looked around. "Where are we?"

"We're at Sasuke's place. He's gonna come with us back to the village."

Lee sat up. Unlike Sakura, Lee couldn't really stand Sasuke anymore. Sasuke was once one of his greatest and most respected rivals. But Lee's perspective of him had changed. During their mission to bring back Sasuke six years ago, Lee had risked his life only to come back empty handed. In fact, both Neji and Kiba almost died for a lost cause and they both hated Sasuke for it. Lee tried to empathize, knowing that he had a curse seal, but he found that he couldn't. He could, however, put up with the Uchiha until they returned to the village. Snapping out of his thoughts, Lee remembered the fight between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Is Naruto alright?" he asked.

"I don't know," answered Sakura. "Sasuke-kun said Naruto may have been taken by Itachi." Both Lee and Sakura were worried about Naruto but they couldn't pursue the matter any further than worry. They both had Konoha to worry about.

Sasuke walked into the room. "So, Lee's awake. We better get going if we want to save your village,"

"It's YOUR village too!" retorted Lee.

"…No, not anymore. Like I said before, I'm only interested in Orochimaru. I could care less about Konoha."

Lee snapped and rushed Sasuke, landing a punch on his chest, sending Sasuke flying across the room and into a wall.

"What the hell was that for?" yelled Sasuke, activating his Sharingan. Lee was about to attack him again but Sakura stepped in between them.

"LEE STOP!" screamed Sakura. "There's no point in fighting here. Save it for the Sound. You two can settle your dispute later." Lee became calm again and Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan.

"Pffft…" Sasuke said, "I'm heading to Konoha. When you're done messing around, feel free to tag along." With that, he grabbed his backpack and left.

Sakura noticed Lee's anger flare up again. "Lee," she said, "At least try to get along with him until this is all over." His anger died down.

"Fine," he said, suddenly feeling as if he remembered something. "But first, there's something I need to pick up." He didn't know why, but for some reason, he felt something calling for him. And, somehow, he knew its name. Samehada.

* * *

Orochimaru stood on a building in the sound village, overlooking the large force of shinobi that he had managed to gather and train in the past six years. Kabuto was standing beside him.

"Looks like they're ready," said Kabuto.

"Yes, this time, Konoha will fall and Sasuke will be mine." Orochimaru directed his attention towards the sound ninja. "My Sound shinobi…You have all come far. It is finally time for the great rise of the Village of the Hidden Sound!" Cheers were heard from the sound shinobi. "You all know what to do. Show Konoha no mercy!" The sound ninja then promptly disappeared, a pleased look shown on Orochimaru's face. "Come, Kabuto, Sasuke is also heading towards Konoha. Let us head out." And with that, Orochimaru and Kabuto headed towards the leaf village behind their hidden army of Sounds.


	7. The Siege of Konohagakure

**The Siege of Konohagakure**

The force of sound shinobi moved quickly towards the fire country, to Konoha. As they moved, one of the Sound ninja looked around as if scanning the force of shinobi to check its strength. There were about a hundred-thirty sound shinobi and of these, twenty or so were Jounin level. Two groups of ten shinobi held large summoning scrolls across their backs, falling behind the others as they ran. The rest seemed to serve no purpose other than front line soldiers.

Finally done surveying the full force of the moving army, the Sound ninja looked towards another Sound ninja beside him. They both nodded and disappeared, pulling as far ahead of the main group as quickly as they could.

"I got all of the information we'll need," reported the first ninja, "It's a pretty sizable force."

"I can't believe Orochimaru could come up with a force this huge in only six years," replied the second ninja. "Anyways, we better warn Konohagakure right away."

"Bah, how troublesome!" said the first ninja as both of them transformed back into their original selves, incessantly moving away from the large army of sound shinobi. The first ninja had thick dark hair that was tied up into a spiky ponytail jutting out at the back of his head. He wore a ninja vest and had a Konoha forehead protector tied to his left arm. His eyes showed that he had intelligence and wisdom beyond his years but his demeanour revealed him to be a bored, lazy, almost uncaring person. All he wanted to do was relax and look at clouds or play a nice game of Go, but these turn of events would probably prevent him from committing to his hobbies for a while yet.

"You think everything is troublesome, Shikamaru, but I think you're right on this one," said the white-eyed, blue-haired kunoichi that moved beside Shikamaru. Hinata had grown up a lot in the past six years. She was no longer the person she used to be when she was a genin. Hinata still had a degree of shyness and timidity about her but, during her missions, Hinata's self confidence shows and she becomes almost assertive. However, around Naruto, she becomes complete stuttering mess again. She didn't know why she had such a huge crush on the blond ninja for so long, but her feelings toward him were definitely still there. In fact, Hinata had grown her hair just so Naruto would notice her. Hinata's long hair came down to the middle her back, covering the leaf symbol design on the light blue jacket she wore. She wore a grey shirt beneath her jacket and dark blue pants that came down to the middle of her calves. Many people in the village found her attractive but…Naruto…he was always too busy training. Hinata sometimes ended up sparring with Naruto just so she could get close to him. She enjoyed the sparring matches but sparring was a little different from, well…her cheeks turned a light shade of crimson as she thought about it.

"Hey, Hinata? Can you check how far the Sound are from our position?" asked Shikamaru.

Hinata snapped out of her Naruto involved daydream and activated her Byakugan. Looking back, she saw the sound ninja still moving at the pace they were at before. "They are about a half-mile behind us. If we keep going at the rate we are now, we should reach the village a few hours before them.

"Good," he said, "It should be enough time to warn the village and prepare."

"I hope so," replied Hinata.

-----

An hour later, Shikamaru and Hinata reached Konohagakure. Both were dead tired and they were surprised to see Tsunade waiting for them at the gates.

"So, how did it go," inquired Tsunade.

Shikamaru was the first to reply. "The mission went well. We were able to gather quite a bit of information while we were there. The Sound are heading towards Konoha as we speak. I counted about a hundred-thirty Sound shinobi. Twenty to thirty of them will be jounin level ninja while the others seem to be chuunin level. Also, several of them are carrying giant summoning scrolls. I only spotted two sets of summoning scrolls so you can probably expect at least two large summons when they attack." Shikamaru thought for a second then continued. "According the briefing we received while we were disguised as Sound ninjas, most of them will be attacking from the front gates. Two teams of ten sound shinobi each will be attacking from the south of the village. At the rate that they were moving when we separated from the group, they should be arriving in about two hours.

Tsunade nodded in contemplation "I've already sent ANBU squads to set traps in the outlying areas. They should be done in time. Anyways, did you two see Orochimaru with them?"

"Orochimaru gave all the Sound ninja a little speech before we left. He's probably following behind the rest of the sound ninja," answered Hinata.

Tsunade eyed the two weary shinobi. "I know you two must be tired but unfortunately, there is no time for rest. I have already assigned both you a team of Chuunin that you are to lead in defence of the village." Tsunade handed them each a list of the Chuunin under their command. "They are waiting by the Hokage monument. Hinata, you are to cover the far south-east of the village. Shikamaru, I'll let you handle the far south-west. Please inform the other Jounin that it is time to evacuate the civilians. You two can rest for a while after you're done evacuating your area." Tsunade then handed both of them a soldier pill. "You'll probably need these. Good luck."

"Hai," agreed Hinata as she left towards the monument.

"Another troublesome task," Shikamaru managed to say before he left.

------

Sasuke, Sakura and Lee continued moving towards the now visible leaf village. The forest was unusually quiet.

"You guys feel something strange?" asked Sakura. Sasuke just ignored her.

"It's too quiet," replied Lee, "There aren't even any animals or birds around."

"Guys, stop!" All three ninjas came to a dead stop. "Look," she said, pointing to some broken branches and camouflaged string. "There are traps set here." They all looked around themselves. "There are traps hidden everywhere."

"They could be traps set by the sound," said Lee.

Sasuke shook his head. "That's a stupid assumption. The sound have no reason to set traps if their attacking Konoha. It would make no sense. You should think before you talk, baka," insulted Sasuke, his usual cold tone now even colder.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" yelled Lee as his anger heightened.

"LEE, SASUKE! STOP IT!" screamed Sakura, "At least wait till this is all over. We have to figure out a way to get past these traps in the mean time."

"That would be almost impossible," came a voice from above them. Suddenly, four ANBU appeared beside Sakura. "You guys are back early. Tsunade said you wouldn't be back until next week." The ANBU looked at the team, surprised when their glance met Sasuke. "You must be Uchiha Sasuke. Where's Naruto?" asked the ANBU.

"He…well…we don't know what happened to him exactly," said Sakura looking down.

"I see…I'm sorry but we don't have time to dwell on it right now. Follow me, I'll guide you through the traps." The three of them followed the ANBU to main gates of the village. "Tsunade-sama should be in her office right now. You three should report to her right away," said the ANBU before he left.

"It's so quiet. They must have already evacuated the village," noted Sakura.

"So there really will be an attack. We better report to Tsunade-sama," Lee suggested. Sasuke just stood silently, thinking.

Sakura glanced over at Sasuke. To her, he seemed different somehow. It was only for a second, but Sakura felt a sense that Sasuke cared about the village before he snapped back to his emotionless self. Sakura just sighed. She knew there was something bothering him but she decided not to bug about him about it until after the sound are taken care of. "Well, let's go," said Sakura.

------

"Kuso" In her office, Tsunade was busy trying to formulate more plans to defend against the impending attack from the sound. "Kuso," she cursed to herself again. 'Maybe I should have kept Shikamaru with me,' she thought as two Jounin entered her office. She looked up to a pair of white eyes and sunglasses.

"Welcome back you two. How did your mission go?"

"It seems as though the Akatsuki were not targeting Konoha at all," answered the white-eyed jounin. Tsunade looked up at Neji and Shino. Of all the Jounin that she had promoted recently, Neji and Shino had changed the least. Neji still retained his somewhat cold personality towards everything and his looks has come close to resembling his father, Hyuga Hizashi, only younger looking. On the other hand, Shino was…well he was Shino. Except for maybe his size, Shino hadn't changed at all. He wore the same clothes, sported the same hair, still had a mysterious personality, and still wore sunglasses.

"Finally some good news for a change. I'm sure you two have already noticed the situation in the village. Your Chuunin assignments are here and they are waiting outside the Hokage monument. Both of you will be defending the village near the front gates. We have already evacuated the entire village so you don't have to worry about that. Please go immediately, according to Shikamaru, the Sound will be arriving in about half an hour."

"Hai," said both of them as they headed out the door.

Neji tensed up as soon as he stepped out. Shock, anger and hatred all sparked within him when he saw Sasuke.

"Neji! Shino!" greeted Sakura. Shino nodded but Neji just continued to glare at Sasuke, prepared to attack him then and there but Shino stopped him.

"Not now," said Shino to Neji. Neji just clenched his fists. He hated Sasuke probably more than anyone else in the village did.

Sasuke noticed the Hyuuga glaring at him. "What?"

"Why the HELL did you betray us," yelled Neji, unable to control his anger any longer, "WE ALMOST DIED FOR YOUR SORRY ASS!!." Neji had been the person closest to dying on the mission to retrieve Sasuke six years ago. Not only that, when Neji was wounded, he spotted Sasuke heading towards him. Neji, expecting help from the Uchiha boy, only found that the Uchiha didn't care at all and ignored Neji, leaving him there to die while Sasuke fled the village. The wounds that he received from the fight against Kidoumaru were fatal and if wasn't for Shizune showing up, Neji would have died for no reason at all.

He remembered what Hiashi told Neji about his father, about how his father, Hizashi, had chosen his own destiny rather than to follow the Hyuga destiny. Neji wanted, more than anything, to choose his own destiny. He didn't want to die for the Hyuga and he definitely didn't want to die for some stupid ninja who betrayed his own village. If he were to die, it would be for himself. It may be selfish, but it was Neji's dream, to defy fate. Sasuke had almost ruined his dream and Neji would hate him for it.

Sasuke just stared coldly at Neji. Sasuke knew the reasons why Neji hated him and he couldn't blame the Hyuga. However, he also didn't care. Until he accomplished his ambitions, nothing really mattered to Sasuke. He felt that an attack from the Hyuga would come at any second if it weren't for Tsunade who had just emerged from her office.

Tsunade looked up, surprised to see Sakura, Lee, and Sasuke. She hadn't expected them to return so early but it was good news for their current situation. "I'm glad you're all back" she greeted. Tsunade turned her gaze towards Sasuke. "So…you've decided to help us out."

Neji burst. "WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU LET THAT TRAITOR HELP US?!"

"Stop it Neji!" she snapped back, "It's true that normally I wouldn't do this. However, the situation in Konoha is critical at the moment and we are in dire need of any help we can get. Besides, I'll be watching him myself."

Neji just scoffed before he and Shino disappeared. Tsunade sighed, taking another look at team seven. Sakura looked a bit depressed and Lee had a giant bandaged sword strapped to his back. "Ok, since you're here, Sakura and Lee, I'll let you take care of the south side of the village. Sasuke, you come with me. We'll help out the teams at the gate. Naruto you…" Tsunade had just realized that Naruto wasn't there. "Where's Naruto?" she asked as a loud explosion was heard towards the North of the village. 'No time,' she cursed to herself. "Kuso! MOVE OUT!" ordered Tsunade as she heard another explosion sound off to the south.

"Roger!" affirmed Sakura and Lee as they headed south while Tsunade and Sasuke headed towards the front gates.

------

Naruto and Itachi moved through the forest towards Konoha. Both were deep in their own thoughts. Naruto wondered why Itachi wanted him to come to the Akatsuki, or why Itachi would bother to help Konoha in the first place. Naruto also wondered about the Kyuubi and why it was dormant. Itachi, on the other hand, thought about Kairi. He still wanted to kill her and this time, he had the tool he needed to do so. Itachi glanced over at Naruto and wondered how he would react to what Itachi was going to tell him after they were finished in Konoha.

Just then, a chain of explosions erupted in the north, near the village's front gates. Naruto and Itachi both stopped, their eyes gazed towards the explosion.

"Looks like it's starting," said Itachi.

"What are we waiting for? LETS GO," said Naruto, almost yelling. Naruto was just about to go when Itachi stopped him.

"Wait!"

"Huh? What?"

"There are ANBU traps here. I recognize them from when I used to be an ANBU," explained Itachi, "There's no way to get through unscathed without disarming some of them." Itachi pulled out a kunai and threw it at a distant tree. Immediately upon impact, a deafening explosion flared uprooting several trees in the process. "Be ready, the sound are coming."

"How many?"

"Ten. Shouldn't be too much trouble," said Itachi calmly. As if on cue, Naruto saw several shuriken fly at him. He dodged them and spotted several sound ninja jumping towards him. Itachi just stood there, his Sharingan activated and a bored look on his face as four sound shinobi came at him from all sides. In the blink of an eye, Itachi dodged the ninja coming from his right, giving the ninja behind him a swift kick in the neck. Then he grabbed the arm of the ninja in front of him and the leg of the ninja on his right before they could attack. Then, Itachi's body exploded into flames and smoke, taking out three of the four ninja that attacked him at the same time. The remaining sound ninja just stood there while the real Itachi silently appeared behind him and stabbed him in the back.

Naruto had a different approach. When training with Neji when Lee was in the hospital, Naruto had learned to expel chakra from certain chakra holes in his body. Although he was nowhere near as good as Neji at expelling chakra, Naruto was able to create his own version of Neji's Kaiten. By expelling chakra from certain chakra points in his body, Naruto is able to stop incoming attacks. However, instead of spinning like Neji's Kaiten, Naruto just blasts out an insanely huge amount of chakra to deflect incoming attacks. It was terribly inefficient but Naruto was never one to run out of chakra, even with his most exhausting techniques. As the six sound ninja attacked him, Naruto just activated his defence. A horrendous amount of blue chakra poured forth from Naruto's body and surrounded him as the sound ninja's attacks were stopped in their tracks. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU," yelled Naruto as six Naruto clones appeared and attacked the six remaining sound ninja. The sound ninja were taken out easily by Naruto's clones.

"These guys were barely a challenge," noted Naruto.

"It's to be expected. Orochimaru must have been in a rush to attack Konoha. These sound shinobi are clearly under-trained. Most of them don't even deserve to be Chuunin," explained Itachi as he glanced towards another incoming group of sound shinobi. "Another ten are coming, let us finish this quickly."

Naruto nodded in agreement as Itachi created ten shadow clones of himself. Naruto created another three clones in addition to the seven he had earlier. Catching the Sound shinobi by surprise, each Itachi clone grabbed a sound ninja from behind and held them while the Naruto clones each charged up a rasengan. The sound ninja didn't even have a chance as the balls of wind tore through their bodies. All the clones disappeared as Naruto and Itachi headed towards the southern wall surrounding Konoha.

They both stood up on the wall as more explosions were heard towards the east side of Konoha. As the smoke cleared from the explosion, two giant three-headed snakes were there, crashing through the village.

"Come," started Itachi, "as soon as we take out those snakes, we'll search for Orochimaru."

Naruto agreed and they both headed towards the snakes in blurs of black and red.

------

Orochimaru hadn't expected Konoha to be prepared for the assault. The initial traps that Konoha set in the outlying forests had already taken out two squads of Orochimaru's sound ninja. The sound ninja weren't exactly well trained either. Orochimaru knew his goal of destroying Konoha was impossible right now but at least he would be able to accomplish his other goal. As the sound ninja engaged Konoha's ninja's, Orochimaru ordered Kabuto to create distractions on the eastern side of the village. Orochimaru bit his finger and performed a few hand seals before slamming his hand on the ground yelling, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." A violent wind of smoke issued forth as a huge amount of air was displaced and replaced by a giant snake.

Manda didn't' look too happy with Orochimaru. "What? Orochimaru, what the hell do you think you're doing summoning me here? Didn't I say I was going to eat you the next time I saw you?" said the giant snake, ready to knock Orochimaru off of his head and eat him.

"Wait Manda," said Orochimaru, "Don't you want to get back at the ones who defeated you before? Tsunade is heading towards here as we speak."

The giant snake was still and silent in for a while as he considered the offer. "Very well, Orochimaru. I will spare you this time. But if you shame me again, I will rip you to pieces without any hesitation.

"Agreed," said Orochimaru as he stood in wait for Sasuke.

------

Sakura and Lee both reached the south wall of the village.

"Huh?" exclaimed Sakura as they looked at the nearby forest. There were bodies of sound shinobi all over the ground. "Who did this?" Several of the bodies held gaping bloody holes in their stomach.

"I don't know," replied Lee, "There is no sign of any leaf ninja here." Just then, Lee saw two people dressed in black and red disappearing from his view. He looked over to Sakura who then nodded.

"I saw them too. I think they may be Akatsuki. We should go after them." Suddenly, shuriken flew from out of nowhere, hitting the sword on Lee's back. At the same time, Sakura barely dodged the kunai aimed at her. Two Sound shinobi revealed their positions, attacking Lee again, but this time he was prepared.

"Looks like two Jounin level sound ninja," noted Lee, "I'll take care of these two. Go after the two Akatsuki and see what they're up to. I'll catch up after."

"You sure you can handle them?"

"Just go, I'll be fine," he said as Sakura vanished.

The two sound ninja stopped and stood in front of Lee. "You Konoha ninja are weak. Don't worry, we'll end this fast for you," said the first sound ninja.

"After all, we are the strongest Jounin of the Sound. We are well known as the Sound's Demon Brothers, proud warriors of the Sound ninja."

"Huh? You guys are pretty full of yourselves, especially since I've never heard of you before," taunted Lee

"Hahahahahahahah! Of course! None of our enemies have seen us and lived to tell the tale."

"In that case, I will be the first. I am Rock Lee, the proud and beautiful azure beast of Konoha," said Lee as he formed his fighting stance, "Let's just see how strong you are."

Lee attacked first. In a flash, Lee appeared behind the two sound brothers and gave them each a swift kick. The sound ninjas flew through a few trees before stopping, seemingly unscathed. 'What?' he thought, 'those kicks didn't seem to have any effect on them.' Both sound ninja performed hand seals.

"Ninpou, HIBIKI SHURIKEN NO JUTSU!" Lee didn't see anything but he immediately felt a sharp, intense pain in his head and ears. Not only that, Lee wasn't even able to stand up straight anymore.

"Arrrghh!" screamed Lee in pain as his ears started bleeding. 'What was that attack? I couldn't even see it,' he thought.

"Hahaha," laughed the sound brothers, "that is our special technique. It creates shuriken made entirely out of sound waves. The sound shuriken causes damage to your ear drums and disrupts the fluids within your semi-circular canals. This will cause you to almost lose your hearing and disrupt your sense of balance," explained one of them. "Not only that, you seem to be a taijutsu specialist. Your attacks won't be able to harm us with our shield of sound." They attacked again with kunai, but Lee was able to regain enough balance to barely dodge their attacks. "Again! Hibiki shuriken no jutsu," they both said as Lee felt more pain running through his head. To Lee, everything was spinning now and he felt like throwing up but somehow, he managed to stand up. He could see the sound ninja laughing at him but he couldn't hear a thing.

"Let's end this," said one of the sound ninja as they attacked again. Lee somehow was able to see the kunai coming at him and he tried to dodge but he couldn't seem to pinpoint where they were coming form. Lee was engulfed in pain as he felt a kunai enter him in the side and another into his right leg.

"ARGGHH," screamed Lee in pain again. Lee tried to release a seal but he realized he couldn't. He had just opened three seals this morning so he would be unable to rely on them again for at least another few days. Another flash of pain erupted, this time in his left arm as a kunai was embedded there. His right leg was able to move a little, but now his entire left arm was useless. 'Kuso,' he cursed, 'they seem to be protected by some sort of shield made out of sound and controlled by chakra. Not only that, there would be no way to use taijutsu effectively in my condition. It feels like those times that I got drunk.' An idea suddenly popped into his head.

The sound brothers watched as their opponent started drinking something out of what looked like a sake bottle. They both leapt back cautiously as Lee went into a weird stance. His body seemed to sway back and forth as if he was drunk. "What's this guy doing?" asked the first one.

"Dunno," replied the second, "Let's just finish this, I'm getting bored."

"Fine, I'll take care of him. You stay out of this," said the first ninja to his brother as he attacked. Lee's upper body somehow swayed backwards as the sound threw at punch at him and completely missed. The sound ninja attacked again, this time throwing a kick at Lee's stomach. Unexpectedly, Lee arced his stomach backward, head-butting the sound ninja at the same time. The sound shield protected the sound ninja, but he was knocked back from the force of the blow.

"What? How can he attack like that in this situation? He shouldn't even be able to stand up right now."

The sound ninja tried again but his advances proved worthless as Lee somehow managed to inexplicably avoid every single attack thrown at him.

"Ahhhh," yelled the sound ninja, clearly pissed off. "One more time," he yelled, coming at Lee again. Once again, Lee dodged the attack, but this time, he grabbed the Samehada with his right arm and swung it at the sound ninja. The sound ninja held his ground, expecting the sword to be stopped by the shield of sound. It proved to be a fatal mistake when the sword when straight through the shield, seemingly absorbing it at the same time. In flash, the sound ninja was dead, roughly cut in half by the huge sword.

The remaining sound ninja watched as his brother died. "NOOOOO!" he screamed as he rushed Lee in blind rage. But Lee's drunken fist was too unpredictable and the enraged sound brother continued to miss every attack. Lee dodged a few more attacks before he thrust out the Samehada, impaling the sound ninja through the chest.

Lee pulled out the bloody sword and ripped off a few pieces of the bandage wrapped around the sword. After wrapping some bandages around his wounds, he collapsed.

------

Sakura continued to follow the two Akatsuki members she saw. They were heading towards the east where she saw two giant three headed snakes appear from out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Itachi continued towards the snakes.

"We are being followed," stated Itachi calmly.

"By who?"

"Most likely a leaf ninja. We'll keep going. Whoever it was will most likely be driven off by the time we reach the snakes.

The sound ninja were engaged with one of the Leaf ninja teams when Naruto and Itachi arrived. The two summons crashed through the village, laying waste to the buildings in their path. One of the three headed snakes had a ninja on its back. Naruto recognized the white-haired ninja immediately.

"That's Kabuto!" he said as Itachi and Naruto stood on a building, prepared to attack.

"Kabuto?" asked Itachi. He didn't know too much about Kabuto except for the fact that he was with Orochimaru. Itachi approached cautiously.

"HEY! KABUTO!" yelled out Naruto as he charged in towards him. Itachi just shook his head. He knew Naruto was loud, but Itachi didn't think Naruto would be stupid enough to charge in head on like that. Itachi moved to a more hidden location to observe the fight and find out how strong Kabuto really is.

Kabuto looked up to see a strange cloaked figure wearing a straw hat attack him. The attack was stopped short as one of the heads from the snake Kabuto was standing on knocked the cloaked figure back. The straw hat that the cloaked figure wore came off and Kabuto instantly recognized the face under it. "That was foolish of you… Naruto-kun," he said, showing a faint smile. Another one of the snake heads hissed and attacked Naruto. Naruto jumped back, narrowly avoiding getting eaten by the snake.

Itachi stood idly by and watched as the three-headed snake continued its relentless assault against Naruto. As Naruto continued to distract Kabuto and the snake, Itachi went around behind the snake and Kabuto, ready to silently kill the silver-haired ninja. He stopped when his vision became completely filled with chakra. 'Genjutsu!' thought Itachi, 'Does that Kabuto have eyes in the back of his head?' Itachi realized that his assumption was wrong when Kabuto suddenly jumped off the snake towards Naruto.

Itachi put his hands up in a seal, attempting to dispel the genjutsu. Nothing happened. 'What? This is high level genjutsu, even I can't dispel it,' he thought. Itachi looked around, attempting to find the source. The world around him became shades of blue as his Sharingan saw the chakra surround him. Where the chakra was coming, he didn't know, but he had an idea. Deactivating his Sharingan, Itachi found himself stuck inside a rock with only his head and upper body jutting out. Looking up, Itachi saw a huge boulder falling down on top of him. He let out an audible yell when it hit him before passing out.

Sakura was hiding behind a tree, looking at the now unconscious Akatsuki member that was leaning against a tree, his head hanging down. The genjutsu she used was another one of her original techniques used to incapacitate her opponents. It used up most of her chakra but Sakura was glad to see that it worked and decided to go and finish the job. She stood in front of the unconscious Akatsuki, her curiosity getting the better of her as she removed the straw hat that hid the ninja's face. Sakura lifted his head to get a good look at his face. He wore a Konoha forehead protector with a gash running through it and his facial features were almost reminiscent of Sasuke's. 'Itachi?' she thought, 'If he's here, then where's Naruto?' She didn't have time to think as Itachi's eyes suddenly opened, revealing his red triple pupil sharingan.

'It worked,' thought Itachi as he opened his eyes to see a pink haired leaf ninja glaring at him. Itachi had faked unconsciousness in order to lure her to him and it succeeded. Itachi recognized the Kunoichi as one of Naruto's team-mates that he had knocked out in the wave country. He was surprised that Konoha had talented shinobi able to cast such a high level genjutsu on him but it didn't matter as Itachi used his Tsukuyomi on her.

Sakura was staring into Itachi's eyes as she found herself in a completely different world. The sky became red and Sakura was tied to a lone tree with Itachi standing in front of her. '…where am I?' thought Sakura.

"You are in my world of the Tsukuyomi. All time and space are under my control here," he said.

"Where's Naruto?" she asked, almost screaming.

Itachi took advantage of Sakura's incognizance to prepare his genjutsu. "For the next seventy-two hours, you will be forced to witness the fate of Naruto," stated Itachi.

Sakura was freed from the tree as she saw Naruto tied up to another tree in the distance. She also saw Itachi standing there, holding a katana in his hand. Itachi thrust the sword through Naruto's stomach causing Naruto to yell out in pain. "STOP IT!" screamed Sakura as she ran towards Itachi, attempting to attack him. She tried to punch Itachi but her fist and body went straight through him. Again, Itachi thrust his katana through his stomach causing another scream from Naruto. Sakura tried again and again to help Naruto but it was in vain. All she could do was watch Itachi continue to mercilessly torture her blond friend and finally kill him right in front her. "NO!" she screamed as Itachi stabbed Naruto through the heart, killing him. Sakura felt useless, like she had somehow betrayed Naruto by not being able to save him. Sakura turned around but found herself watching another Naruto get tortured by Itachi, exactly the same as the last one. The images of Itachi torturing and killing Naruto continued. Every minute for what seemed like days now, she saw Naruto being killed by Itachi while all she could do is just watch in shock and horror.

'It's just genjutsu,' she tried to think. But to her, everything seemed so real. Sakura tried closing her eyes, but Naruto's continuous pained yelling and screaming rang through her head. After what seemed like three days, Sakura collapsed in tears, broken. Naruto's yelling and screaming stopped as Sakura found herself tied to a tree again, Itachi standing in front of her with a katana.

"For the next five minutes, you will experience the pain that 'he' felt," said Itachi. Now it was Sakura's turn to scream out in pain as she was continuously stabbed by Itachi.

Sakura's scream was heard throughout Konoha as she came back into the real world, collapsing in front of Itachi. Sakura was in complete shock now, she couldn't think straight anymore as her thoughts were filled with Naruto's and her own death. Itachi decided to leave her there and help Naruto kill Kabuto.

------

'Stupid snake,' thought Naruto as he kept dodging the snake attacks that came at him, 'Where the hell's Itachi?' Another snake head attempted to engulf him as Naruto side-dashed out of the way, throwing an explosive-tagged kunai at the same time. The kunai hit the left snake-head and exploded to no effect. 'Kuso! I hate snakes,' he thought again as thought about another way to finish off the snake. Naruto bit his fingers and he started performing hand seals. His hands went into Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and finally a Sheep seal before Naruto's palm faced towards the ground. "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" he yelled as a large amount of chakra gathered beneath his hands. Suddenly, a large katana carrying toad appeared with Naruto standing on its back. The toad was a bit bigger than the three-headed snake but it wasn't Gamabunta. "Let's go!" ordered Naruto as the toad leapt forward towards the snake, its katana extended. Kabuto saw this coming and immediately leapt off of the snake and onto the ground. Naruto did likewise as the toad attacked the snake.

Kabuto attacked first. Rushing up to Naruto, Kabuto charged his kunai with chakra before attempting to stab Naruto in the chest. Naruto read the attack and dashed backward, avoiding Kabuto's kunai by a hair. Kabuto followed up with a punch which Naruto blocked with his left hand before giving Kabuto a swift kick in the stomach that sent him flying backwards between the two fighting summons. The ground crumbled beneath the two huge beasts as the giant toad landed on Kabuto's arm, crushing it, before jumping up to attack the snake again. Kabuto winced in pain and Naruto took this opportunity to attack him. "RASENGAN," yelled Naruto as he held out his left palm and hit Kabuto with it. Naruto expected Kabuto's chest to be ripped to shred but instead, nothing happened.

"You better take a look at your arm Naruto-kun," said Kabuto, smiling. Naruto did so and was shocked to see several Kunai stuck in his arm.

"What!?"

"The last attack you blocked wasn't an ordinary attack. I cut off your chakra flow and nerve impulses in your left arm. You can no longer use or feel it."

'Dammit,' thought Naruto. He had forgotten that Kabuto was a medical nin with medical jutsus which rivalled those of Tsunade. Naruto was careless but not anymore. He pulled out the kunai in his arm and stopped the bleeding by tightly surrounding his arm with chakra.

"You shouldn't have come Naruto. You could have been the next Hokage if you lived," said Kabuto, "But I guess being the Hokage of a decimated village wouldn't mean much would it?" Kabuto grinned at Naruto before continuing with malice in his voice. "Actually, maybe I won't kill you. I'll just injure you enough so that you're able to watch all of your friends and comrades die."

Naruto withheld his anger. He knew that he couldn't let Kabuto get to him or it would be all over. Naruto went first, heading towards Kabuto's right side, the side with the crushed arm. Then, Naruto threw a punch, expecting Kabuto to dodge. Instead, Kabuto blocked the punch, grabbing onto Naruto with his left arm.

"What the hell?" Kabuto's crushed arm had already completely healed and was latching on to Naruto's cloak, immobilizing him. Naruto didn't even think, he just reacted as Kabuto prepared another of his medical jutsu attacks again. Just like the fight against the sound ninja before, Naruto started to expel huge amounts of chakra in every direction. Kabuto was caught unprepared as his attack was stopped dead while a sudden giant ripple of force knocked Kabuto far back and hard into the ground. Naruto took advantage of the opportunity and charged up a rasengan with his right hand hitting Kabuto in the stomach with it. Kabuto's body was driven into the ground from the force of the ball of wind. Naruto pulled out his hand, the rasengan still whirling in his palm. Kabuto was dead, a bloody hole where his stomach used to be.

Close by, the giant snake and toad were still engaged in a fight. Naruto decided to go finish the three-headed monstrosity. Just as he was about to head towards the snake, he felt as if something hit him from behind. Naruto tried to move but couldn't. Soon enough, a white-haired ninja made himself visible to Naruto.

"What the hell? I killed you!" said Naruto.

"That was just a double. I got a dead body and made it look like me. Then I woke it up and controlled it. Now…let's see how well you do against your own attack, Naruto-kun," said Kabuto, smiling.

Kabuto was standing on Naruto's left side, holding Naruto's shoulder. All of a sudden Naruto's right arm started moving on his own. His right arm was slowly lifted to his side and Naruto watched as a rasengan formed in it. Then, his arm slowly moved towards his own stomach.

'Kuso, I can't do anything. It can't end like this. I can't kill myself.' More thoughts ran through Naruto's head as his arm continued to move on its own. Then, his arm stopped. It seemed as though Kabuto was struggling to finish the job as his arm started shaking. His palm with the rasengan was facing Kabuto and almost touched Naruto's stomach, ripping apart part of the cloak Itachi had given him. Finally, an idea hit him. 'It's facing Kabuto,' realized Naruto, 'It's now or never.'

Naruto focused and pumped as much chakra into his right arm as possible. His arm was now surrounded in blue chakra. "RASENGAN DANGAN!" yelled Naruto as the chakra around his arm was focused into his palm.

To Kabuto's dismay, the Rasengan shot out of Naruto's palm and headed to Kabuto's chest. Kabuto tried to dodge but it was too late as the Rasengan drilled right through him. Kabuto fell down beside his other body, dead.

'Finally,' thought Naruto. He was dead tired. Naruto still had a lot of chakra left but it wouldn't do him much good. His left arm was still completely useless and his right arm had become completely burnt from the huge amount of chakra he gathered in his last attack. A loud poof was audible in the distance as the toad had finally beaten the three-headed snake. Also, a loud scream was heard nearby. Looking in its direction, he saw Sakura, unconscious, and Itachi who was heading towards him.

"Don't worry, she's not dead," said Itachi, indifferent.

"What did you do to her? I thought we weren't supposed to harm any of the Konoha ninjas," scolded Naruto.

"She was in my way," replied Itachi calmly. "Besides, I only used a genjutsu. She'll be fine when she gets some rest. For now, we need to leave. You are in no condition to fight," Itachi said, looking at Naruto's arms.

"What!? I can still fight. We still have to take care of Orochimaru."

"If you fight like that, you'll probably die."

'Kuso!' thought Naruto, knowing Itachi was right. Naruto couldn't fight with both of his arms out of commission. 'Looks like I gotta let Konoha handle the rest,' thought Naruto. Then, his attention turned towards Sakura. "What about Sakura, we can't just leave her here. The sound might kill her."

"They'll probably just think she's dead," assured Itachi.

Naruto was still worried. "How can we be sure. We need to take her somewhere outside Konoha until all this is over. I'm not going anywhere until we get her somewhere safe."

If Itachi cared, his eyes would have started twitching in annoyance. Again, Itachi considered knocking out Naruto to take him by force. However, they had a plenty of time and it would be better than Naruto trying to kill him later.

"Very well, but we leave immediately."

"Fine," replied Naruto. Itachi slung Sakura over his shoulder as they disappeared.

------

Tsunade and Sasuke, along with an escort squad of ANBU, continued running towards the front gates, prepared to take out any Sound nins they encountered. The attack came as expected. Several shuriken flew at the group of Konoha ninjas but they were dodged easily. Suddenly, a large explosion was heard as a huge puff of smoke appeared in the distance. As the smoke cleared, a giant snake was revealed.

"That's Manda. Orochimaru must be there," said Tsunade. The sound ninja started closing in as Tsunade barked out her orders. "You ANBU, take care of the sound ninja here. Sasuke, you come with me. We're going take care of Orochimaru."

"What about the curse seal. Didn't you say you had a way to remove it?" asked Sasuke.

"We'll try our shot at killing Orochimaru first. If he manages to escape somehow, I'll remove it for you after. Anyways, no time to talk, let's go," she said as they all headed out to their targets.

Orochimaru just stood atop Manda as Tsunade and Sasuke arrived.

"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" said Tsunade as a giant slug appeared in a huge puff of smoke. Both Tsunade and Sasuke stood on Katsuyu's head as they faced Orochimaru.

"So…Sasuke-kun," started Orochimaru, "are you prepared to join me?"

"There's no way he'll join you," Tsunade barked back. Beside her, Sasuke stood silent.

"We'll see…shall we begin?" Manda attacked first, it's fangs extended, attempting to bite Katsuyu. Katsuyu squirmed back hard and countered with a poison gas attack.

'This guy moves pretty fast for a giant slug,' thought Sasuke. He hadn't seen a fight like this since Naruto fought Gaara six years ago. Orochimaru leapt off of Manda to avoid the poison gas attack made by Katsuyu.

"I'm gonna go after him," said Sasuke.

"No, wait. He's too dangerous for you to fight alone," said Tsunade. Sasuke leapt of Katsuyu and pursued Orochimaru despite Tsunade's warnings. 'Kuso,' she thought. Letting Sasuke fight Orochimaru was a bad idea but Tsunade couldn't do anything about it since she had Manda to deal with.

Orochimaru and Sasuke stood face to face, Orochimaru's snake eyes meeting with Sasuke's red Sharingan. Sasuke wasted no time at all as he immediately used his Sharingan on Orochimaru, attempting to debilitate him with pain. It didn't work.

Sweat formed on Sasuke's brow.

"What a terrifying technique," admitted Orochimaru, "However, I constantly live in pain. A little more won't affect me at all. I look forward to taking your body and that technique with it, Sasuke-kun."

"SHUT UP! I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!" screamed Sasuke. Sasuke charged at Orochimaru, fuelled by rage. The move wasn't a smart one since Orochimaru saw it coming. Orochimaru's freakishly long tongue flew out, managing to wrap itself around Sasuke's legs. Then, just as quickly, Orochimaru lifted Sasuke up by his legs, a snake coming out of his mouth at the same time. "DAMMIT, LET ME GO!" yelled Sasuke. A sword came out of the snake's mouth, stabbing Sasuke in the shoulder. Sasuke ignored it as he performed several hand seals. "CHIDORI!" In a flash, Sasuke's hands and feet were engulfed in electric like chakra, ripping apart Orochimaru's long tongue in the process. The sword was still impaled through Sasuke's shoulder but it didn't matter as Sasuke suddenly disappeared from Orochimaru's sight.

"Impressive," said Orochimaru, hearing the sound of chirping birds all around him. He didn't think Sasuke would come this far in only six years. Orochimaru couldn't react in time to the attack coming from behind him.

"SHUT UP!" screamed Sasuke back as he hit Orochimaru's back with one of his chidori arms. Orochimaru flew forward, flying into Sasuke's foot that had just appeared there. "I'LL…" started Sasuke as he gave Orochimaru a chidori kick in the chest. "I'll, KILL YOU!" finished Sasuke as he gave Orochimaru a final Chidori punch in the face.

Orochimaru's body landed hard into the ground, blood pouring out of the wounds that Sasuke had inflicted on Orochimaru. Tsunade and Katsuyu were still busy fighting Manda but Sasuke didn't care. He had finally accomplished one of his goals. Now there was only one more. One goal he needed to accomplish. One more of his…ambitions to follow. A loud poof was heard in Tsunade's direction as she had finally beaten Manda. Sasuke, about to head over when a sudden incredible pain lashed out on the back of his shoulder.

Sasuke screamed out in pain. Sasuke had never encountered such pain in his life. The pain spread throughout his body. It was too much for Sasuke to handle and he found himself almost wanting to kill himself to end it.

Tsunade had just defeated Manda and heard the agonized scream coming from Sasuke's direction. Looking towards him, Tsunade saw Orochimaru, obviously dead on the floor. A flash of relief was felt by Tsunade as she saw Orochimaru's body, however, when she saw Sasuke, her relief turned to fear. Sasuke was still screaming out in pain as she saw what happened. The seal that had contained the curse seal had started to burn red before it erupted in a flare of chakra and vanished. The curse seal, however, was what surprised her. The fact that the seal was still there made Tsunade know that Orochimaru was still alive. Orochimaru's body suddenly stood up and performed a few hand seals.

"NO! It can't be!" said Tsunade, shocked.

The pain in the back of his shoulder stopped as suddenly as it appeared. Sasuke slowly got up from his kneeling position and looked up. 'What!? Impossible!' thought Sasuke as he saw Orochimaru's battered and barely recognizable form facing him. Out of nowhere, Sasuke's vision was filled with a glowing dragon-like snake, coiled around him and about to eat him.

"Wh-What is this?" asked Sasuke, completely shocked.

No answer came as the snake devoured him completely. "GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Sasuke as his vision faded to black.

Tsunade gazed at Sasuke, confused. After Sasuke's last scream, Orochimaru's body fell back down to the ground lifelessly. Tsunade leapt down off of Katsuyu, throwing a few carefully aimed Kunai at Orochimaru's body before checking him. 'Phew, dead,' thought Tsunade, finally relieved. She took a look at Sasuke, the curse seal on his back had disappeared completely. "Good job, Sasuke. No time for rest though, we still have to help out other parts of the village." Sasuke stood there for a while. It seemed like he was looking at himself, checking his body for something. Then, he looked at Tsunade and started laughing hysterically.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Sasuke! What's gotten into you. We have to-" she was cut short as Sasuke pulled out the sword in his shoulder and attacked Tsunade. "Sasuke, what are you doing?"

Sasuke's next attack was blocked as Tsunade held the sword by the blade while Sasuke tried to force it down into Tsunade. They were face to face, eye to eye, as Tsunade yelled at him. "Sasuke, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Then, Sasuke's sharingan eyes deactivated, revealing a pair of snake-like eyes. "OROCHIMARU!"

"KUKUKU. You are correct. I have taken this Uchiha's body."

"YOU BASTARD!" she yelled, knocking away Orochimaru/Sasuke away with her freakish strength. Orochimaru landed on his feet, grinning at Tsunade.

"We'll meet again, Tsunade-chan. Until then…" Orochimaru vanished in a puff of smoke.

"DAMMIT!" she yelled. 'This is bad,' she thought as she headed off to help finish off the sound and started to contemplate a plan for dealing with Orochimaru.

* * *

Technique Guide:

Hibiki Shuriken no Jutsu (sound/echo shuriken technique) – User creates shuriken made out of sound which are thrown at opponents ears. The sound then impacts the ears causing damage to the ear drums and disrupts the fluid in the semi-circular canals. This causes the victim to be temporarily deaf and imbalanced.

Rasengan Dangen (Wind Spiral Bullet/Shot) – User controls and focuses chakra in the palm of his hand such that it spirals extremely fast in every direction. Then, the ball of spiralling chakra is blasted outward, away from the palm, drilling through everything in it's path.

(A/N: Hehe, I know my techniques are pretty unoriginal, but it's because I don't know Japanese and I can't come up with any good Japanese technique names. All of my techniques were names translated using what I've heard from the show and from a really crappy Japanese-English dictionary I have. I know I could just use English technique names but I think it would ruin the feel of the story. Maybe if I had a beta-reader fluent in Japanese… Chapter 8 will be all about Naruto and Itachi.)


	8. Further Aspirations

**Further Aspirations**

The sky started to darken as the sun set in the distance. The sounds of battle slowly died down as Naruto and Itachi moved away from the village. Sakura was hung over Itachi's shoulder, still unconscious.

"We'll drop her off at a nearby village before we head to the wind country," said Itachi.

"That's fine," agreed Naruto, trying to move his left arm. His left arm hung loosely at his side but feeling was slowly returning to it. His right arm was still scarred with chakra burns also. It was times like these when Naruto missed the Kyubi inside of him. Had the Kyubi not lain dormant, Naruto's wounds would probably have healed already. "You said you knew about the Kyubi right? Tell me whats wrong with it?"

Itachi hesitated a moment before answering. "There's nothing wrong with the Kyubi. To put it simply, the Kyubi is no longer inside of you."

"What!? How!? Why!?" asked Naruto, seemingly asking all three questions at once.

"It's a long story."

"We've got time. Besides, this was part of the deal. I go with you, you tell me everything about the Kyubi." Demanded Naruto. They kept going in silence for a while before Itachi complied.

"From what the third told me, it all started eighteen years ago, when the Kyubi attacked Konoha. The fourth had decided that the only way to stop the nine-tails was to seal it into a human vessel so it can cause no further damage."

"That vessel was me right?" inquired Naruto.

"Yes…but that is only partly correct," answered Itachi.

"Huh?" asked Naruto, surprised, "What do you mean?"

"The third had realized that the Kyuubi was far too large and powerful to contain in only one vessel. Others were needed. You are one of those vessels that were destined to contain the Kyuubi, however, there were two others as well," explained Itachi. Naruto was shocked. He didn't know what to think now that he knew there existed two people who were exactly like him. Itachi continued. "Unfortunately for you, the most dangerous and destructive part of the Kyuubi was stored inside of you. The villagers knew this and they feared and hated you for it. This allowed the third to downplay the other two, and almost completely hid the fact that there were two others at all."

"So…who are the other two?" asked Naruto, curious.

"Besides you, I only know one other. The third went through a lot of measures to make sure their secret wasn't revealed. The other person that I know who contains part of the Kyuubi is the leader of the Akatsuki. A kunoichi, by the name of Kairi.

"Kairi?" Naruto had no idea who the person was.

"Kairi was once a leaf nin until she betrayed them," stated Itachi.

"Kinda like you, huh?"

"Perhaps," said Itachi, a look of contempt flashing across his once emotionless face.

"Looks like you don't get along with whoever it is."

"You can say that, but, it's none of your concern."

"Hey, but wait? What do these other two Kyuubi people have to do with the part inside of me?"

"It's Kairi. A few weeks ago, while the Akatsuki were still active in Konoha, we stole a scroll and copied its contents. On it contained many forbidden techniques."

"I remember a scroll like that. I learnt the kage bunshin from that scroll about six years ago, right before I became a genin."

"Yes, that is the same scroll that we had stolen. There was a technique on that scroll which allowed a person to release the Kyuubi from its vessels and summon it at will. Kairi has that scroll now and has already started to use 'that' technique. I'm still not sure how it was done, but she has already extracted your part of the Kyuubi and sealed it within herself."

Naruto wasn't convinced. "How can she extract the Kyuubi from me when I haven't even seen her?"

"She only needs to know who you are and your whereabouts. Once those are taken care of, she is able to use the scroll to extract the Kyuubi from you at any distance."

Naruto thought about it for a while. It didn't make sense but it did explain why he felt the Kyuubi was dormant. Now, he was interested in the Kairi person.

"Wait a minute," said Naruto, "You said that the Kyuubi had to be sealed in three different people to contain it. How can this Kairi contain more than on part of the Kyuubi?"

"Having the entire Kyuubi within you won't kill you. It only makes you…less human. Kairi right now is…well…you'll see her soon enough."

"WHAT!? We can't go to her? Besides, doesn't she already have my part of the Kyuubi?"

"The original goal of Kisame and I was to bring you to her. You are probably the key to finding the remaining vessel of the demon-fox. Once we bring you to her, and find out how to find the third Kyuubi vessel, stopping her will become one of our objectives," explained Itachi. Naruto definitely didn't want the Kyuubi coming out and causing havoc again. If there was a way to stop Kairi from summoning Kyuubi, Naruto would help. Having part of the demon fox within him for so long, Naruto knew what it was capable of.

Itachi and Naruto continued along towards the village, both oblivious to the fact that Sakura had already been awake and listening to the conversation the entire trip. She heard Itachi explain everything about the Kyuubi and this Kairi person who she had never heard about before. Sakura thought Naruto was already dead and she was more than relieved to find out that Itachi hadn't killed Naruto after all. She still wondered why Naruto would trust Itachi, the S-class criminal who killed his own clan and betrayed the village. Naruto couldn't be that naïve.

'Naruto,' she thought. Ever since she found out about Naruto having the nine-tails within him, Sakura saw Naruto in a new light. Sakura always thought Naruto was loud because, well, he was Naruto. But now, she thought about Naruto with a whole new understanding. Now she knew why Naruto acted the way he did, why he was treated the way he was. She had always wondered why Naruto was seemingly hated, almost feared, for no apparent reason. Her own parents told her to stay away from him, even when they became part of the same team. Everything became clear to Sakura now, and she felt guilty, since she hadn't always been nice to Naruto. Back in their genin days, Sakura had almost ignored Naruto completely so she could get closer with Sasuke. Sakura knew that Naruto had saved her life once, from Gaara and Shukaku, but she didn't thank him for it yet. Even recently, she had acknowledged Naruto as a friend, but she still didn't really treat him as one. Now, more than anything, she wanted to apologize to Naruto for the way she treated him. She didn't know why, but it was one of those things that she HAD to do. However, now wasn't the time as she was still being carried by Itachi. Sakura decided to wait for an opportunity to make her move. Besides, she wanted to know where they were taking her.

-----

The night had finally settled in as Naruto and Itachi reached the small village. Naruto had never been to a village like this before. For one thing, it was small, about a quarter of Konohagakure's size. However, despite its size and considering how late it was, the village was still bustling with people. There was a small but very busy market at the centre of the village. Around the market were buildings of various sizes, most likely apartments or inns. Around those buildings were the houses of the villagers.

Itachi pointed to the nearest Inn and Naruto nodded in agreement.

The clerk at the desk inside the Inn watched as two strangely dressed people entered the Inn. One seemed to be injured while the other was holding a girl over his shoulder.

'Probably just another drunk prostitute,' thought the clerk as he greeted the guests. "Welcome to Fire country's paradise Inn. How can I help you?"

Itachi ordered two rooms and paid for them. Naruto headed to their room as Itachi went to drop of Sakura in the other room.

'Now's my chance!' thought Sakura as Itachi entered the room. Sakura immediately flipped off Itachi's shoulder, surprising him as she started attacking. Itachi, although caught off guard, he blocked and dodged her attacks easily. He could tell she wasn't especially talented in taijutsu as her moves were relatively slow and predictable. He continued to block and dodge attacks as he decided whether or not to use Tsukuyomi again. Itachi decided against it as it would be dangerous for him to use it a second time so soon.

Naruto heard the commotion and headed to Sakura's room. Itachi was holding off Sakura's attacks as Naruto entered.

"Sakura! Wait!" said Naruto.

"Naruto! Help me out," she screamed at the blond ninja.

"Sakura, stop. Just hear me out," he said, holding Sakura back from behind. "We can trust him. He helped out with the attack on the village," explained Naruto. Sakura calmed down and Naruto released her.

"Well, she's safe," noted Itachi to Naruto. "We'll leave early tomorrow morning. Your friend there may return to the village whenever she wants."

"Naruto! How can you trust him. He may have helped out against the sound but he's still an S-class criminal. Not only that, he's the S-class criminal that almost wiped out the entire Uchiha clan."

Itachi grimaced at the words. Itachi let it go, however, as he didn't want anyone except Sasuke to know about the dramatic past of the Uchihas. It was a family pride thing, and that was how it was to remain.

"It's true," said Naruto, "I still can't really trust Itachi but I can at least put up with him. Besides, there are more important things we need to deal with right now. If Itachi is right about the Aksatsuki, then we need to stop them before the problem gets out of control."

Itachi stepped in. "You," he said to Sakura, "needn't worry about that problem. I suggest you return to Konoha."

"Itachi's right," added Naruto, "This is a problem that doesn't involve you. It involves me. This is one of those things I have to do."

"But, I want to help," stammered Sakura. "I know about the Kyuubi. And Kairi." Both Itachi and Naruto looked at her in surprise.

"How did you know?" asked Naruto.

"So…you were awake then, during our talk," stated Itachi. Sakura just nodded. 'Kuso,' thought Itachi. Having Naruto on a need-to-know basis was trouble enough. Now he had to deal with this pink-haired ninja that Naruto wanted to keep safe. "Having more people involved in this will only get you killed. You should just stay out of this. It does not involve you."

"But I can help," she reputed. Sakura wouldn't back off. Once she had her mind set on something, nothing could pry her away from it. Naruto knew this so he agreed.

"Let's just bring her along. She'll probably come in handy against the Akatsuki," persuaded Naruto.

Itachi stared into Sakura's emerald eyes. They almost matched the determined look on Naruto's eyes and that's when Itachi knew that she wouldn't accept no as an answer. Itachi thought about putting her unconscious again and leaving but Naruto wouldn't allow that. Itachi had hoped that Naruto would be more like Kisame, always following orders and listening to reason. It wasn't the case, however, and there was nothing he could do about it. 'Looks like another person I have to baby-sit,' thought Itachi. "Very well," he said, "But you must follow my orders from here on. Also, word of this must never leave this room. It will be trouble enough having you two know about the Kyuubi secret."

"Hai," they both agreed.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning. You two should get some rest until then. You'll need it. I assume you two don't trust me, so you two can share this room," said Itachi as he left.

They watched as Itachi left the room before Naruto turned his attention towards Sakura. "You sure about this, Sakura?" asked Naruto. He really didn't want to involve her, but Sakura was almost as stubborn as he is when she makes up her mind.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I can't let you stick with that Itachi alone. He might not be that trustworthy," answered Sakura, "I don't want to lose anymore friends."

Naruto was surprised at her words. She had never openly called him a friend before so he just ignored it. "He's kept his word so far. I can't really believe that he could kill his entire clan just like that. He's strong, but I don't think he's the type to kill people for no reason."

"I still wouldn't trust him. If he didn't kill anybody, there would have been no reason to leave the village like he did. Since he left the village and became a missing nin, he's probably guilty of something." Both Naruto and Sakura sat and thought about it for a while until Sakura noticed Naruto's arms. "Naruto! What happened to your arms?"

"Oh, these?" he said, pointing at his wounds, "They're nothing. I got them back in the village when I fought our old pal, Kabuto."

"Kabuto was there? Why would you fight him? Isn't he a leaf-nin?"

"Nope. He was in league with Orochimaru. I knew it for a long time, I guess I just didn't tell you."

"Oh…Hey Naruto, hold out your arms, like this," she instructed as she held her arms out in front of her. He did the same.

"Why?" he asked. Sakura hovered her hands over his arms as a warm, light-green chakra came out of her palms and into Naruto's arms. All of a sudden, the cuts in his left arm began to converge and disappear while the burns on his right arm started to heal as well. "Wow, Sakura-chan. I didn't know you can heal."

"Tsunade taught me basic medical jutsu since you and Lee always ended up in the hospital. She hoped that teaching me would reduce the costs at the hospital."

"Heh," he said, followed by a long awkward silence. Sakura wanted to apologize to Naruto. She wanted to tell him that she understood how he felt, what he went through. However, she just couldn't seem the find the words and so she sat there in silence. Naruto saw the look on Sakura's face. He had never seen that look on her before. It was the look that Iruka had given him sometimes. A look of understanding. Again, he ignored it, not expecting this sort of thing from Sakura. "Well, we better get to sleep," said Naruto, breaking the silence.

"Y-yeah," replied Sakura as they turned out the lights and lay on their beds. Both stared at the ceiling in darkness for a while, Naruto already starting to fall asleep.

"Naruto?" she asked.

"Huh?" came the tired reply.

"I'm sorry," said Sakura, but Naruto was already asleep.

* * *

(A/N: Short chapter, I know. It's cuz I decided to split this chapter and the next chapter up. Why? Because I can. Find out what happened to Orochimaru and Konoha next chapter. I'll also continue this Naruto/Itachi/Sakura quest next chapter too. Actually, a lot of things are in the next chapter and it will be long so I'll probably take a while to finish it. A little more about my OC, Kairi, was shown in this chapter and a lot more will be revealed next chapter. I'm getting writers block just thinking about the next chapter. Anyways, please review, criticize, flame, whatever, I'll read them all and take them into consideration.)


	9. Aftermaths of an Attack

**Aftermaths of an Attack**

Jiraiya hurried towards Konoha, hoping that there was still time left. When Jiraiya left to spy on the Akatsuki, he didn't think that Orochimaru and the Sound would attack Konoha. Alongside Jiraiya stood Kiba and his dog, Akamaru. Jiraiya was amazed at Kiba's tracking skills. Not just any ninja is able to find Jiraiya, but this one was able to do it in less than a day.

"I hope we make it in time," said Kiba as Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Yes. If what you say is true, that many of the Konoha Jounin are still on missions when Orochimaru attacked, then we can't afford to waste any time," as Jiraiya bit his thumb and faced his palm towards the ground. "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU," he yelled as a toad appeared in a puff of smoke. "Kiba, get on. This will take us there much faster."

Kiba was reluctant. He didn't like toads that much, let alone giant ones carrying katana. But he was still amazed with the sannin. Naruto had Kiba believing that Jiraiya was just some kind of perverted hermit. Naruto always called Jiraiya Ero-sennin and it downplayed the image of Jiraiya in Kiba's mind. But when Jiraiya summoned the giant frog, Kiba found himself doubting Naruto's opinions. Kiba and Akamaru both leapt on the frog.

"Better hold on," he said to Kiba and Akamaru. Both complied. "Hey, take us to Konoha village," ordered Jiraiya to the toad. The toad then leapt forward with incredible speed.

------

Tsunade stood atop a part of the wall that surrounded Konoha. The village of Konoha didn't look too good at the moment. The sounds of battle had already died down as the few remaining sound shinobi fled. The front gates and front part of the wall of the village had been torn down and some of the buildings were demolished and still burning from all of the jutsu used. The east side of the village seemed to have a trail of destruction running through it, almost leading all the way to the centre of the village. However, the inner part of the village was still intact and Tsunade was thankful for that.

Rebuilding the village was one of the goals in Tsunade's mind but there was another also. Orochimaru had been on her mind ever since he left. Now that he had Sasuke's body, he is an even greater threat and Tsunade would have to stop him soon, before he became too strong. Tsunade already had plan in her mind on how to deal with Orochimaru, but she'd have to wait until order was restored to the village.

"Tsunade-sama," came a voice from behind her. She turned around to see four ANBU standing there. "We have come to report the current situation.

"Good. Please continue," she replied.

"Our forces have suffered minimal losses. Many of our shinobi are greatly injured and will require medical attention immediately. Also…" he continued, a sombre expression behind the mask, "although I said we have minimal losses, there were still many casualties."

"I see… It's to be expected. After all, this is a war now that you get down to it."

"Yes… as it stands, we have lost twelve chuunin. In addition to that, we have one gravely injured Jounin and another jounin is missing."

"Missing? What do you mean."

"The injured jounin was Rock Lee. We spoke with him and he asked us to find Haruno Sakura. However, we could only find traces of her near the east side of the village. There seemed to be a large battle there and all indications suggest that Haruno Sakura was possibly captured by a Sound."

"Take me to the battlefield immediately!" ordered Tsunade.

"Hai," replied the ANBU as they lead her to the field.

When they arrived, Tsunade was surprised. The ground was scarred with snake trails and toad prints. She knew about the snakes, but the only people she knew who were able to summon toads were Jiraiya and Naruto. Jiraiya has yet to be seen and Naruto was missing. This aroused her suspicion. Also, Kabuto's two dead bodies caught her attention. Tsunade remembered fighting with Kabuto before, and she knew that no ordinary ninja could possible defeat him.

"Did you see any other shinobi here besides our own and the sound?" she asked to the ANBU.

"No. However, there are some signs that the Akatsuki were here," answered the ANBU, directing Tsunade's attention towards a straw hat with a gashed Konoha forhead protector under it.

"It's a Konoha forehead protector," said Tsunade, "I doubt it could be Itachi's. I wonder whose it is?" she pondered, while somewhere in the distance, Naruto sneezed. "No matter, whoever they are, it looks like they beat Kabuto for us."

"It seems so."

"Tell the villagers that it's safe to come out now. Also, I want you to bring me Shino, Neji and Hinata immediately. Tell the others to meet by the hokage monument in an hour. We have to get organized quickly."

"Hai," affirmed one of the ANBU as he left. The rest followed suit.

Moments later, Neji, Hinata and Shino appeared and reported to her. All three of them looked drained but hadn't seemed to have sustained any major injuries.

"You called us, Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes. Sorry it's on such short notice, but I have a mission for you three."

"What!? But we just…" stuttered Hinata.

"I know you three must have been through a lot, but something has come up and it's impossible to ignore. Not only that, it is an S-class mission and your chances of success are only fifty percent at best."

"Huh? But why would you even assign us this mission with such a low probably of success?"

"I have no choice. Come, I'll explain to you in my office," she said as they all headed to the Hokage's office.

Just as they reached the office building, a giant toad landed into the ground in front of the group.

"You're late Jiraiya, Kiba" yelled Tsunade.

"Sorry, I got here as fast as I could. The village doesn't look too good right now."

"The damage is worse than the aftermath of the last sound invasion. It'll take longer for us to recover from this one. In the meantime, I've arranged for the sand village to lend a hand in defence of the village since we still have a binding contract with them."

"I see…"

"But since you're here, I need to explain something to all of you," she said as she entered the building. The others followed her in.

Everyone watched as Tsunade started looking around for something in her office. When she stopped, she pulled out a strange looking red scroll with the heaven seal inscribed on it. "This is what I need to talk to you about," she said as she held out the scroll.

"IS THAT…?" exclaimed Jiraiya, not believing what Tsunade just pulled out.

"Yes, this is an ancient Uchiha technique scroll."

"An Uchiha technique scroll?" asked Shino.

"I've heard of them," replied Neji, "The Hyuuga clan also has technique scrolls. Technique scrolls are scrolls with instructions on secret techniques available only to a certain clan. However, I heard that the Uchiha scrolls were all taken by Itachi when he murdered the clan. I didn't think there would be any left."

"It was true that the Uchiha scrolls were either taken or destroyed…," explained Tsunade, "…however, I came across this one while I was searching through Orochimaru's old laboratory."

"What does this have to do with our mission?" asked Shino, "Even though you have the scroll, only an Uchiha is able to use them right?"

"That was what I thought, until I read the scroll," answered Tsunade. "This scroll holds a sealing technique that was banned from the village ages ago. This technique didn't even require you to be an Uchiha to perform it."

"Sealing technique?"

"Yes, this curse seal technique usually ends up killing the person being sealed. If you are to survive though, the sealed person is granted huge power at the cost of their free will. Also, using this power deteriorates their body over time. It is a dangerous technique and it is the same one that was used on Anko and Sasuke."

"So…this scroll is where Orochimaru learned the technique from. But why are you bringing this up now?"

"It seems that this sealing technique was the basis for Orochimaru's immortality jutsu. First, Orochimaru uses this curse seal technique to eliminate the victim's free will, then, he uses his immortality jutsu to transfer into the victim's body. Usually, when Orochimaru transfers into another body, the victim's mind and consciousness is completely eliminated and Orochimaru can simply take over. However…"

"Huh? However?"

"Let me explain this sealing technique first. When used on a normal person, their free will is eliminated over time. But remember that this is an Uchiha technique to begin with. When this technique is used on an Uchiha, their free will is not affected at all. In fact, the seal helps to protect the Uchiha's mind from outside forces. The seal was originally intended to prevent other Uchiha members from falling prey to a certain Sharingan technique called Tsukuyomi. Then, over time, the sealing technique was banned because it was abused."

"What are you getting at?" asked Neji, impatiently.

"During the fight with the sounds, Sasuke and I encountered Orochimaru and engaged him in a fight. After the fight, Sasuke started acting strangely. Then, he revealed himself to be Orochimaru. My conclusion is that Sasuke was a victim of Orochimaru's immortality jutsu." Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise at what Tsunade said.

"WHAT!? So Orochimaru has Sasuke's body now? This is bad…"

"Exactly. But there may be a way to bring Sasuke back and put an end to Orochimaru. Remember when I explained about the curse seal protecting the Uchiha's mind from any outside attacks? I think the same thing applies here. If Orochimaru used the immortality jutsu on Sasuke, Sasuke's mind is still protected by the curse seal. However, this is just an assumption."

"So what do you want us to do, Tsunade-sama?" asked Hinata.

"There is still a chance that we can recover Sasuke. The curse seal that Orochimaru put on Sasuke isn't complete. There is a second part to the seal that allows the sealed person to use their will. I need you to finish the seal on Sasuke. Once that is done, it is up to Sasuke himself to defeat Orochimaru in his own mind. Like I said earlier, this is an S-rank mission and there is only a fifty percent chance of success."

"What about the village?" asked Neji.

"I can handle things at the village here. Orochimaru will become too much of a problem. We have to take action now before it's too late. In fact…Jiraiya, I want you to go with them."

Jiraiya considered for a second before answering. "Ok. But I do have a request."

"What is it?"

"Naruto comes with us."

"That can't be done."

"Huh? Why?"

"It seems that the Akatsuki has taken him. They probably have Sakura as well."

"Don't worry about them," assured Tsunade.

"But…"

"Trust me…"

"…Well, I guess this is more important right now."

The group then stood there thinking for a while.

"Wait a minute," said Neji, "None of us even know how to this technique. Even with this scroll, it'll take a while to master it. On top of that, we need people to test it on."

"Oh, that… Well, I trust your judgement. You can ask Anko if you want but I doubt she'll let you."

"B-but what are we supposed to do then?" stuttered Hinata.

Tsunade just gleamed her bright smile. "I'm sure you'll think of something. I trust in all of your abilities except maybe coughJiraiyacough"

"I heard that you flat ches-" but Jiraiya stopped when he glanced at her huge breasts. 'I gotta come up with another way to put down Tsunade,' he thought.

Tsunade just laughed as the others sweat-dropped. "Well, if there isn't anything else, please start the mission right away. The more time you give to Orochimaru, the more powerful he'll become."

With that, they all left the office, everyone thinking about how they'll complete the mission.

------

The sound village was quiet as Orochimaru arrived. There were very few shinobi left in the small village since Orochimaru had sent everyone who was capable of fighting. However, it didn't really matter to Orochimaru right now since he had finally succeeded in taking Uchiha Sasuke's body. As time passed, sound shinobi slowly trickled in, returning from the battle in Konoha. Only about twenty sound shinobi returned though. Orochimaru was surprised by the absence of Kabuto, and somehow already knew he was dead.

'What a shame,' thought Orochimaru as he wondered who was able to kill Kabuto. However, there were more important matters at hand for Orochimaru now that he has taken Sasuke's body.

Orochimaru headed to a field of giant rocks, anxious to test out his newly acquired body. Raising a hand, Orochimaru unleased a pair of snakes which went straight through a nearby boulder.

"Excellent," he said to himself. Then, Orochimaru started jumping and flipping around, throwing shuriken and kunai at various boulders. "Beautiful…hahaha…beautiful. This body is perfect…hahahahaha!" Then, Orochimaru activated his newly acquired sharingan. "Incredible!" said Orochimaru to himself, "I can see everything!"

Orochimaru finished testing out his new body and was utterly satisfied with the results. Now he could concentrate on his next plans. Of course, Orochimaru's long-term goal is still to attain every jutsu in the world and to become an all powerful shinobi. But for now, he had to eliminate any of those who could possibly threaten him. First on Orochimaru's hit list is the Akatsuki. He needed to eliminate Uchiha Itachi. Now that he had Sasuke's body and the Sharingan with it, Orochimaru doesn't think Itachi will be too difficult to get rid of. The other person Orochimaru is planning to get rid of is the leader of the group, Kairi. Orochimaru had ignored her at first, concentrating more on Itachi, however, Kairi has grown to become a major threat. Orochimaru found out that Kairi had a large portion of the Kyubi sealed within her. If she was able to fully unleash its power, it would be trouble for the ex-Konoha sannin. Finally, Orochimaru's last target is Naruto. Naruto has the most volatile and dangerous part of the Kyuubi stored within him. On top of that, Naruto has enough chakra to rival the kyuubi itself. He would only cause Orochimaru trouble if he were to live.

Orochimaru smiled. 'Only three people left that can stop me,' he thought as he licked his lips, 'this will be fun…'

------

The air was cold and dark, the ground was seemingly red, furry and moving. Distant yells and cries echoed through Naruto's head as he tried to figure out where he was. A bunch of muffled growls and roars were heard as he suddenly recognized the familiar setting. He was outside of Konoha and although everything seemed so real, Naruto realized that it was a dream. Not only that, it was a continuation of the last one had.

The Kyuubi could barely move. The death god that the fourth summoned was still latching onto the monstrous fox, preventing it from causing any harm.

"It's not enough," came a voice. The voice sounded burdened, as if the person talking was desperately clinging to life. Naruto looked over to see the fourth with almost an invisible hand jutting through his stomach.

"The demon is too powerful to contain in only Naruto. His body is already starting to reject the spirit. You must use another person," came another voice. Naruto looked up at the source of the voice and saw the third.

"But…"

"WE HAVE NO CHOICE! HURRY BEFORE THE DEATH GOD TAKES YOU!" yelled the third. Just then, Naruto heard another voice, the soft voice of a child, and he looked over at it. Naruto saw a little girl, maybe about five or six years old. The girl had red hair and her eyes were a light shade of teal.

'Who's that,' thought Naruto, 'If she's in my dream, it's probably someone I know.'

The little girl was small and innocent looking. Tears were streaming down her face and she was quivering in fear. Naruto couldn't blame her, this is a terrible situation for anyone to be in.

"Don't worry, Kairi. Don't cry," comforted the fourth, trying to suppress the pain.

Naruto was surprised. This was the Kairi that Itachi was talking about? The girl looked normal enough now.

"Are you going to be ok…?" she asked the fourth in between her sniffles.

Naruto watched as the fourth gave her a bright, reassuring smile. "I'll be fine," he replied, "Once this is all over, we'll go have some fun. How 'bout that?"

The little girl wiped the tears from her eyes and managed to calm down. Then she smiled and tightly embraced the fourth who winced in pain. "You promise?" she said.

He nodded, a hint of sadness on his face."But we don't have any much time. Kairi, I need your help. Do you want to help?"

"OK"

"Ok, just turn around," instructed the fourth, "this is going to hurt, but only for a little while, ok?"

"OK!" she said as she did what she was told. The fourth promptly held her shoulders. Then, suddenly, a hole was ripped through the middle of her shirt as she winced in pain. Then, seconds later, she collapsed, unconscious. The ground seemed as if it were falling when the Kyubi also collapsed.

"Huh? Is it over?" wondered the third.

"Uggghh….no. There is still a small part left. If we don't seal it, there is a chance that the Kyuubi can restore itself to full strength. We can't take that chance."

"Then…you must use..."

"…afraid so," solemnly replied the fourth.

"I'll take Kairi and Naruto back to the village. Good luck," said Sarutobi as he picked up Kairi.

"Right. Please take care of Kairi…and…Naruto…" said the fourth.

'Huh?' thought Naruto as his own name echoed through his head. 'Naruto…Naruto…Naruto…NARUTO!"

That was when he woke up. Naruto opened his eyes and saw Sakura staring down at him.

"Finally awake, Naruto? You were making weird noises in your sleep."

"Just a bad dream. Don't worry about it."

"Huh? What was it about?"

"Don't worry about it. It's...nothing important. Anyways, what time is it?"

"It's five in the morning. Itachi came in and said we'd leave as soon as you wake up. He's waiting outside of the Inn now."

"We better not keep him waiting then. He might use his freaky eye on us if we're not careful," said Naruto as he left the room.

'Strange,' thought Sakura. It wasn't like Naruto to hide things from her. Usually, Naruto talked about everything to Sakura. Even dreams were explained in full detail. But he seemed different today. She sighed. 'Maybe he's mad at me for tagging along,' she thought as she headed outside.

Sakura saw Itachi and Naruto standing and waiting when Sakura came out.

"Looks like we're ready to go," said Naruto.

"Hai," replied Sakura.

"Before we go…" started Itachi as he pulled something out from under his cloak. It was another cloak that he pulled out. "You must wear this also," he said to Sakura.

"Huh? Why do I have to wear that?" she asked. Sakura didn't exactly like the cloak, it was too out of style for her.

"The only way to enter the headquarters without being killed on the spot is by wearing this. Every Akatsuki member is required to wear this red and black cloak. By wearing this cloak, it demonstrates that you wish to join the organization. Knowing Kairi, she'll probably force you into match with another member. If you can win, she'll let you in. However…"

"…however? Are you trying to say that we die if we lose?"

"That is correct. This is the only possible way of infiltrating the organization," replied Itachi. Then Itachi turned his attention towards Sakura. "The chance of Naruto succeeding is high. But it is improbable that you will make it out alive. If you wish to leave now, go ahead."

"A-are they that strong?" questioned Sakura.

"They far surpass the level of Konoha elite-jounins," came the answer.

Sakura stood there, trying to decide whether or not to head back to Konoha. She looked over to Naruto for some kind of sign or reassuring look. However, Naruto seemed like there was something on his mind at the moment.

'Maybe he's lying,' thought Sakura, trying to reassure herself. 'I can't trust Naruto with Itachi. Not when he's like this. I have to go along.'

"Have you decided? We don't have time to be waiting around like this."

"I-I'm…still going."

"Very well. Remember, this was your decision. I am at fault for nothing that may happen."

"Fine," she said as she put on her new cloak. "Let's go Naruto."

Naruto snapped back to attention. "Ok," was all he said as they left the small village.


	10. In Wind and Sand

**In Wind and Sand**

The morning had finally awakened for the village of Konoha. Although the Sounds were defeated, there was little if any reason for celebration. Almost half of the village was in ruins and many leaf shinobi had lost their lives in the battle. However, there was no time for resentment or mourning right now.

Tsunade sighed as she continued to stare out of the window in her office. She had just come back from a long council meeting. The majority of the council members agreed that the re-establishment of Konoha's power is to take priority over all else. Everything else had to wait until the village was up to full strength or close to it. But still, Tsunade's mind drifted off to wonder about a few things. First about the group she sent after Orochimaru and second, about Naruto.

'Bah, they'll be fine,' she thought. The team she sent after Orochimaru was the best she had at the moment. Plus, Jiraiya is with them so they shouldn't have too much trouble. Also, Tsunade knew that Naruto was safe. Near Kabuto's body was evidence that Naruto had been there. Kabuto's wounds also indicated that Rasengan was used and only Naruto and Jiraiya are able to use that technique. And then there was Itachi. Itachi had come to her once, and also explained his goals. He said he needed to finish off some business and that he needed Naruto to do it. Of course, Tsunade rejected the idea but she guessed that Itachi had taken Naruto anyways. The only person Tsunade was clueless about was Sakura. Tsunade talked to Lee but all Lee mentioned was the Akatsuki and that Sakura went after them. Tsunade trusts Sakura and her abilities, although it was all Tsunade could do at the moment. Even she wanted to send out a search party, she couldn't. Everyone was needed at the village right now and that wouldn't change for a while.

Tsunade got up and started looking over her plans for the village. She sighed. "This is gonna be another long day," she said to herself as she left the building.

------

"Hey Jiraiya, you sure this is the place?" asked Neji, impatiently as they headed towards a small house near the center of the village. Their mission was to try to bring back Sasuke again and to finish off Orochimaru once and for all. But now, they needed Anko since she was the only person who they could use to practice removing Orochimaru's curse seal.

"This is the place. Tsunade said so herself," replied Jiraiya.

"I hope she'll let us try it on her. It would be a waste to go all the way to Orochimaru only to find out that none of us can remove the seal," said Hinata.

Jiraiya knocked on the door. "Hey Anko, come out," he said as he knocked, "we need to talk to you." No answer. "ANKO! I know you're in there, open up." The group heard some sounds coming from inside the house before the door finally opened, revealing a very wet Anko wearing only a towel and holding a stick of dumplings. Anko's hair was down and came to her shoulders. Her legs and arms revealed a few scars on an otherwise perfect body and her towel could barely cover everything that needed to be covered. Jiraiya just stared at her, barely able to contain his nosebleed.

"Whaddya want?" asked Anko, still annoyed at the fact that her relaxing bath was interrupted.

"It's about your curse seal," said Neji, coming straight to the point.

Anko grabbed her neck. "The seal? What about it?"

"It looks like we might have a way to remove the seal," answered Jiraiya.

"What!? How!?" asked Anko, almost yelling at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya took out the scroll that Tsunade gave him. "It tells you how to remove it in here," he said.

"Huh? Give me that!" demanded Anko as she snatched the scroll from Jiraiya's hand. Anko opened the scroll, only to find it completely blank. "Urgh…one of those Hyuuga scrolls?"

"Nope, it's an Uchiha scroll. Here, I'll reveal words," said Jiraiya as he performed a few hand seal. The chakra in the scroll suddenly began to burn red and the letters became visible.

"Does it show you how to remove the seal?" asked Anko.

"It does."

"REALLY!? Then let's get rid of my seal!"

"Hey Jiraiya? Don't we need to finish the seal on Sasuke? That was what Tsunade said right? There's no point in practicing how to remove the seal."

"WHAT!?" yelled Anko in surprise. "You came here just to finish the seal on me? Whaddya, Crazy?"

"Calm down Anko. If you let us finish the seal on you, we can remove it after? How does that sound?" bargained Jiraiya, "We'll even treat you to dinner after or something."

"Forget it!" said Anko, pissed. "Get outta here. I don't want a full curse on me." Anko then promptly threw everyone out of her house before slamming the door shut on them.

"What now?" asked Neji. "We don't have any time to waste."

Jiraiya sighed. 'It's gonna be a long day.' "I'll convince her. Just give me a few more hours," he assured. 'Time to use my charm…' thought Jiraiya as he knocked on Anko's door again.

------

The wind was violent as Naruto, Sakura and Itachi moved through the wind country. On top of that, sand was blowing everywhere and their visibility was cut short. Naruto continued walking, following Itachi. Itachi walked along looking bored as usual. In fact, Itachi almost reminded Naruto of Kakashi, always calm and bored looking. However, there was a huge difference in their personalities that Naruto couldn't quite figure out. Sakura, on the other hand, walked beside Naruto. Although she'd give him a cheerful smile whenever Naruto looked at her, he could tell that Sakura was almost at her limits. Naruto couldn't blame her though since she wasn't used to this type of environment and she didn't have the stamina that Naruto had. Still, Naruto admired her determination. It was a determination that he himself was familiar with.

Then, for no apparent reason, Naruto started to think about Sasuke. The last time Naruto saw Sasuke was at their fight in the wave country. Sakura had said that Sasuke had returned to Konoha to help them against the sound after their fight. 'Maybe Sasuke had changed,' thought Naruto.

"Hey Sakura?" asked Naruto.

"Huh?"

"You said Sasuke returned to the village to help right? Did he tell you why?"

Sakura looked down. "He did."

"What did he say?"

"He said something about Orochimaru. He wanted to kill Orochimaru so that he could get on with his revenge. He said he wasn't there to help the village at all and that he could care less about Konoha."

"I…I see," replied Naruto. 'Guess that guy didn't change at all,' he thought.

"Th-That BAKA! I…why couldn't he…" exploded Sakura as tears started to fill her eyes.

"Huh!?" responded Naruto.

"Why couldn't he just…just forget about his revenge," finished Sakura as her tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Because it's in his blood," replied Itachi calmly. Naruto and Sakura both looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura as she wiped away her tears.

"The Uchiha's were known to be the most powerful clan in all of Konoha. But that power comes with a price," replied Itachi, "There are many secrets about the Uchiha clan that weren't revealed to anyone else. Having Uchiha blood is like having a natural bloodlust. The more people we kill, the more we want to kill. The more power we have, the more our hunger for power grows as well. Also, an Uchiha's hatred is intensified to about ten times that of a normal person. The same goes for anger and pain. However, an Uchiha's sense of vengeance is the most dangerous and powerful side effect of the blood. Once an Uchiha has felt betrayed, there is very little that you can do to stop them from committing an act of vengeance. This is the situation that Sasuke is in right now."

"So there isn't anything we can do?"

"The easiest way would be to let him finish off his revenge. Once that's done, the he will return to normal."

"So, he has to kill you?"

"…No…It's someone else now. It's the same person I must kill."

"You mean Kairi? But I thought you were the one who killed the Uchiha clan."

"That is what I made everyone believe. The true culprit is Kairi. However, if Sasuke tried to kill Kairi at his level, he'd probably die."

"Then, what can we do?"

"The only other way is to use the scrolls," answered Itachi.

"Scrolls?" asked Naruto, curious.

"The Uchiha technique scrolls. They are scrolls that contain secret sealing techniques. They are meant to suppress the effects of our blood. They are usually performed on every Uchiha when at the age of ten but in Sasuke's case, I had to perform them on him prematurely. It may not have worked since he was too young. If we perform them again, it will work and Sasuke will lose most of his desire for revenge."

"So what are we waiting for!?" exclaimed Sakura, "We should go perform them now."

"No," said Itachi.

"WHAT!? WHY NOT!?" screamed Sakura. "We can save him. We can stop him from doing all this. We can bring him back. We can-"

"WE CAN'T!!" yelled Itachi. Naruto was surprised. This was the first time he had seen Itachi act anything less than cool. "Orochimaru has him now. There's nothing we can do." Sakura's and Naruto's eyes widened.

Sakura couldn't believe it. Sasuke wouldn't be taken over that easily. Sakura couldn't believe any of it and started yelling at Itachi. "H-how do you know!? Sasuke wouldn't let Orochimaru take over that easily. There's no way that-"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Itachi. "There's nothing we can do right now. Besides, we have bigger problems to deal with at the moment. If you want to go save him that badly, go by yourself. Saving Sasuke is meaningless right now. Even if we save him, it won't mean a thing if Kairi is out on the loose with all of the Kyuubi's power. He'll probably die anyways, along with us. Don't let your emotions get in the way of your judgement. That…that is what a shinobi is." With those words, Sakura continued walking and cried to herself silently with Naruto trying to comfort her.

"You didn't have to be so rough with her," said Naruto, still surprised that Itachi could lose his cool like that.

"It had to be done. Shinobi who let their emotions get in the way will get killed."

"Pffft. How do you know Sasuke is taken over by Orochimaru anyways?" asked Naruto.

"It's in our blood," he answered calmly.

------

The kazekage stood atop a building, overlooking the sand village. He wore the traditional kazekage robe. He didn't wear the hat though and so his red messy hair was exposed and blowing in the wind. His eyes were those of an insomniac with black lines around them. It didn't matter though since he had suffered from lack of sleep since his childhood. He also carried a gourd full of sand on his back. He stared at the village. The sand village had prospered in the past three years. Despite being feared by a lot of the village and being the youngest kazekage ever, it was because of him that the village had prospered. During his last three years in power, he had established better relations with Konoha, improving trade and economic conditions in the sand village. Also, alliances were set up with the other surrounding shinobi village.

"Gaara!" came a voice from behind him. A blond haired Kunoichi landed beside the kazekage. She wore a giant fan on her back.

"That's Kazekage-sama to you, Temari" said Gaara.

She smiled. "Sorry, Kazekage-sama. I came to report about the patrol."

"Anything strange?"

"Only one thing. There seems to be three strange shinobi walking through the wind country. Based on their clothes, they look like Akatsuki members."

"I see. Have you located their base yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"Looks like we'll have to interrogate them then. Find Kankuro and meet at the village entrance. We'll capture those Akatsuki members and have them tell us where their base is."

"Hai."

------

Sakura was still weeping at what Itachi said to her. She felt as if Itachi didn't understand her at all.

'I don't need to be understood by him,' reassured her inner-self, 'he's the enemy. He's the reason I'm here in the first place.' But then she started to reconsider. Other than the fact that Naruto had been kidnapped by the Uchiha, there was no reason to be afraid of him. Right now, Itachi didn't even seem like a threat. In fact, Sakura almost trusted the ex-Konoha nin. She didn't know what it was, but there was a deep sense of integrity about him.

'Maybe I'm just over-reacting,' thought Sakura.

'But then…maybe not,' replied her inner Sakura.

"Shut It!," ordered Sakura to her inner-self.

'Hehe…'

"Huh? Did you say something Sakura?" asked Naruto.

"Oh..um..nothing. Just…talking to myself."

"Talking to yourself?" asked the blonde ninja again, scratching his head.

"Don't worry about it," she assured.

"Pay attention you two," said Itachi, "We're only about an hour away. Plus, we're being watched by someone."

"Ya, I noticed it too," replied Naruto.

"Huh? What are you-" started Sakura before something flickered in and out of her eyesight. To her, it looked almost like a floating eye.

"Keep moving," ordered Itachi.

"Hai," said Naruto and Sakura as they started walking.

The three of them walked in silence for a few minutes before Itachi suddenly turned around and threw a kunai in the blink of an eye. Naruto and Sakura both looked in the direction of the throw and saw what looked like an eyeball cut in half, slowly disintegrating into sand.

"Someone is definitely watching us. Keep an eye out and stay alert. It could be a trap," stated Itachi. The others just nodded and slowly followed the Uchiha. All three of them were on alert and cautiously traversed through the desert. However, they came to a dead end as an impossibly long and high wall was in front of them. "This wasn't here before. This is definitely some kind of jutsu." They all turned around only to find another giant wall in front of them.

"What the hell?" yelled Naruto, "We're surrounded."

"Calm down. Nobody make a move!" said Itachi to the others. The trio stood there trapped and silent. Itachi activated his sharingan and started looking at the walls. "Just as I thought…"

"Huh? Is it one of the Akatsuki?"

"No."

"Then who is it-"

"LOOK OUT!" yelled Sakura as she pounced on Naruto as sand spikes flew out of the wall of sand.

"Kuso!" cursed Itachi as more spikes came flying at them. "We have to break through. Naruto, get a hold of yourself."

"Trying…" he yelled back as continued to dodge the flying spikes. '…too many. I can't dodge like this forever. But if I use my defence technique, Sakura and Itachi might get stabbed by me…' "Dammit! Sakura watch out!" yelled Naruto as several spikes flew at her at once.

Sakura heard the warning and quickly dashed away as fast as she could. She couldn't, however, dodge every spike as one went through her arm. Sakura screamed out in pain as the narrow spike flew through her right arm. Naruto tried to reach her but more sand flew around, preventing him from getting any closer. Sakura was still trying to nurse her wound as a single spike flew at her head.

"SAKURA!" screamed Naruto right before she disappeared. "Huh?"

"What are you doing still standing there? The spikes are slowing down, hurry up and get out," said Itachi. Naruto looked up to see Itachi carrying Sakura while using the moving spikes as steps to ascend the wall. Naruto tried to ascend the wall like Itachi but he only ended up falling down from halfway up the wall.

"Kuso!" cursed Naruto.

"Hurry up Naruto," came Itachi's voice from outside the wall.

"Shut up. Don't push me," bursted Naruto as his hands performed some hand seals. Naruto dodged a few more spikes that came at him. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU," he yelled as several Narutos appeared beside the original. Two of the clones grabbed Naruto by the arms and flung him up while the others helped to divert some of the spikes that flew at Naruto. Now above the top of the wall Naruto created another clone to use as a jumping platform. Then Naruto landed beside Itachi, using chakra to soften the fall.

"You sure it's Gaara?"

"Yes. He's standing right there," replied Itachi, pointing up to a nearby cliff. Naruto looked up to see a man with short red hair wearing a Kazekage robe. Beside Gaara stood Temari and Kankuro with his two puppets. With a wave of Gaara's hand, the giant wall that had once trapped them collapsed into a pile of sand.

"You three are lucky to be alive," said Gaara, "Not many are able to escape my Areno Heya Technique. You won't be as lucky next time. If you lead me to your headquarters, I'll spare your lives. If not…" Gaara then made what looked like a man out of sand before crushing it in front of Naruto, Itachi and Sakura.

Naruto was about to remove his hat and show Gaara that they were Konoha shinobi but Itachi stopped him.

"We can't let him know who you two are right now," whispered Itachi to Naruto and Sakura.

"Why not? We'll avoid fighting if-" started Naruto before he was interrupted.

"He'll assume you two are missing nins anyways. It'll be better this way. If we have to fight, I'll take care of Gaara. I'll leave those other two to you."

"…Hai."

Itachi then turned his attention back to Gaara. "We have no intention of leading you to the Akatsuki. Leave us immediately if you do not wish for a leaderless sand village," said Itachi as if he could care less about Gaara.

"If that is your choice, all three of you will die now," With those words, Temari and Kankuro disappeared from Gaara's side while Gaara and Itachi walked towards each other. They stopped a few meters in front of each other and stared at each other.

"I don't want to fight," said Gaara, "If you show me where your headquarters are, I will still spare you."

"I decline. What business do you have with the Akatsuki?"

"You're criminals are you not? Criminals need to be stopped."

"Even If I told you where the headquarters are, there is no way you can succeed against…her."

"Her? You mean your leader. You underestimate my abilities."

"Not at all. I know you very well. You are Gaara of the sand, am I wrong? You're possessed by the spirit of an old priest…your mother. On top of that, the badger demon Shukaku is within you. You use sand as your defence as well as offence. Feared by your own people, even by your own father, the previous kazekage, who died six years ago. You, yourself became kazekage three years ago despite most of the village fearing you. We know a lot about you, Gaara. In fact, we are keeping a close eye on you along with the other demon vessels."

Gaara wasn't phased at all by how much Itachi knew. "Again, you underestimate me, Akatsuki," said Gaara.

"We'll see."

Gaara attacked first. The sand at Itachi's feet suddenly erupted from the ground and tried to wrap itself around Itachi. Itachi, expecting such an attack, quickly avoided the sand, throwing kunai at Gaara at the same time. The kunai flew at a lightning fast speed but Gaara's shield of sand was faster.

"You're shield of sand is getting faster I see…"

"That's not the only thing," replied Gaara as sand bullets materialized behind Itachi. "You will die here," threatened Gaara as the sand bullets flashed through Itachi's body. However, there wasn't even a surprised look on Itachi's face as the bullets went through him. Instead, his body just turned to sand. The real Itachi, who had copied Gaara move, formed sand bullets of his own and threw them at Gaara. Gaara's natural defence blocked most of the bullets, but a few came through, hitting his armour of sand.

At the same time, Naruto and Sakura were being attacked by Temari and Kankuro.

"Sakura!! Are you ok?" asked Naruto worriedly after dodging the first blast of wind that Temari sent at them.

"I can't use my arm," she replied.

'Kuso!' thought Naruto. He remembered now that Sakura's right arm was pierced by a sand spike in the trap they were just in. Without her arm, she wouldn't be able to perform seals to cast genjutsu. He'd have to protect her this time. However, Sakura was already too far away, avoiding the violent gusts of wind that Temari was throwing at her.

"Hey, you don't have time to sit and think," yelled Kankuro as sent his two puppets after Naruto. One of the puppets extended it's arms and legs in an attempt to catch and bind Naruto. Naruto barely dodged the puppet and tried to think of a counterattack. Performing hand seal, Naruto used the Kage-bunshin to buy him some time. In a flash, ten more Naruto's appeared beside the original and began their assault on Kankuro and his puppets. Temari was nowhere to be seen.

"Haha, your clones won't work on Karasu and Kuroari," gloated Kankuro. "Kuroari Ni-Doru Supin No Jutsu!" With those words, the puppet, Kuroari, exploded, sending thousands of tiny poisoned needles in every direction. The clones didn't expect such an attack and seven of them ended up getting hit by the needles and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto himself took cover behind a three but was surprised that the needles almost went through the tree itself. The three remaining clones nodded at eachother and at Naruto, seemingly coming up with a plan in an instant. The clone behind Kankuro came out first, immediately receiving the attention of Kankuro and the Karasu puppet. At the same time, another clone attacked Kankuro from the side.

"That won't work!" yelled Kankuro as he made the head part of Kuroari split apart, revealing a set of spinning blades that he flung towards the clone. The clone at the side was split in half before disappearing in smoke, but it created an opening for another clone to attack. The clone in front quickly dodged Karasu's attack and formed a Rasengan before plowing it through the puppet's right arm and leg before getting cleanly hit by a knife that popped out. As that clone disappeared, the final clone rushed from another side, created a rasengan and plowed it through Karasu's other right arm and leg, removing them at the same time. The clone, in turn was sacrificed as it was impaled by Karasu's arm at the same time.

"Heh, your puppets are no good with their body parts missing. You should just give up. There's no way a guy like you could beat me."

"Ha, baka. Every part of my puppets have weapons hidden inside them. Plus…" said Kankuro as his fingers started wiggling, controlling his two broken puppets. Naruto was surprised as the remaining parts of Kankuro's two puppets suddenly began to come together, forming a single, more dangerous looking puppet.

"I call this one, Kokushibyou. This one has more surprises than the other two puppets combined."

"I'll destroy this one like I did your other two. KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Another ten clones appeared beside Naruto.

"Won't work," stated Kankuro as his fingers twitched more, pulling various chakra strings on the puppet. In an instant, several needles flew out, each hitting a clone right when they appeared, causing them to disappear just as fast. Naruto himself was hit with a few needles but none hit his vital organs.

'Kuso…Too far away for Rasengan. Not enough time for a Hobunshin. Kage Bunshin didn't seem too effective against this new puppet. And where's Sakura? Kuso! Kuso! KUSO!" cursed the frustrated Naruto.

"KOKUSHIBYOU GASU!" yelled Kankuro as a strange purple gas began to flow out from every part of the puppet. Naruto had nowhere to run or hide. "Just a whiff of the gas and you'll die, Akatsuki-san."

'Kuso…thought Naruto. Can't outrun the gas. What should I-" but Naruto was cut short as he became completely buried by sand. 'The hell? This sand…GAARA!' Naruto remembered the move Gaara used on Lee during their first chuunin exam. Lee's arm and leg were covered in sand then…crushed. Naruto acted quickly and started to expel a massive amount of chakra from his body. The Chakra around him seemed to explode as the sand compacted around him, stopped only by the sheer force of the chakra that Naruto created. 'That was close,' thought Naruto as he started to dig his way out.

Sakura was on top of the sand when it buried Naruto, barely able to dodge anymore of Temari's huge bursts of wind. Sakura was unable to fight back since her taijutsu and ninjutsu was pretty much useless. On top of that, her right arm still bled from the sand spike trap so she couldn't even cast genjutsu, her specialty and only real talent. Sakura jumped up again, dodging another huge blast of wind. Sakura was at her limit now but she'd never give up, she wouldn't, she couldn't. In fact, she'd forgotten how to give up a long time ago.

In the meantime, Itachi and Gaara continued their heated battle.

"That defence of yours is getting annoying," noted Itachi.

"Using my own abilities against me. I underestimated you," returned Gaara, "But no more." Putting his hands together, Gaara began his next move. "RYUUSA BAKURYU!" Suddenly, a huge volume of sand erupted from the ground beneath the two fighters. The amount of sand was incredible as everything began to be covered by the crushing wave of sand. Itachi found himself buried by sand. In fact, even the trees around him were buried by the massive amount of sand Gaara produced.

'Damn Gaara. Should've known he'd use something like this,' thought Itachi, 'Can't even move right now.'

"It's over for you, Akatsuki! SABAKU TAISOU!" In an instant, all of the sand in the area hardened and compressed. The technique was exactly like his Sabaku Kyuu and Sabaku SouSou only on a much larger scale. However, Gaara misjudged. "WHAT!?!?"

The area of sand that Itachi should have been at began to melt. Itachi slowly raised himself out of the ground, engulfed in black flames that seemed to suck in light rather than release it. Gaara looked into Itachi's red eyes, his pupils spinning.

"SAIKOU ZETTAI BOUGYO SHUKAKU NO TATE!" yelled Gaara as a fat badger wearing a hat appeared in front of him. The summon found itself running towards Itachi, spikes extending from it's stomach.

"No use," said Itachi as he walked forward into the spikes. The sand wasn't even able to touch Itachi as the spikes melted into molten rock before they could even hit. Itachi walked straight through the fat demon badger, melting a hole right through it.

'…Impossible!' thought Gaara, 'That badger was supposed to be an impenetrable shield. What kind of fire is that?'

"This is the final bloodline limit of the Uchiha's. Only those who have mastered the Sharingan and have Uchiha blood are able to perform this technique. It is called Amaterasu, the Tsukuyomi's counterpart," explained Itachi. "You can't win. Release my comrades and I'll leave you in peace."

Gaara stood silent for a while, staring at the light absorbing Itachi.

"Temarai! Kankuro! We're heading back."

"Huh!? Why?" they both argued at the same time. Gaara gave both of them a glare and they immediately stopped inquiring.

"We'll leave them alone for now. Go back to the village."

"…Hai," they both said as they headed towards the village.

Gaara looked back at the three ninja dressed in Akatsuki wear. "We'll be meeting again," he said before disappearing into the sand. Sakura laid on top of the sand, healing her wounds with chakra. The black flames on Itachi suddenly disappeared and he sat on the sand, almost completely drained of chakra.

"Where's Naruto," asked Itachi tiredly as Naruto bursted out from under the sand.

"KUSO! WHERE ARE THEY!? DAMN PUPPETS, I'LL GET THEM ALL," he screamed as he performed several hand seals. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Several Naruto clones appeared and started looking around frantically for any sign of Kankuro.

"NARUTO!" called Sakura, "Calm down. It's over."

"Huh!?" questioned Naruto, confused. "Anyways, Sakura, your arm, are you ok?"

"Ya, I'm fine. I've already healed my arm. Thanks." Naruto, now relieved, looked over to Itachi.

"Hey, Itachi. What happened? You look tired."

"I'm… I'm fine. Just used a bit too much chakra," said Itachi, panting.

"What did you do?"

"It's not important. Anyways, I'll recover by the time we reach headquarters."

"Are you sure?"

"Just keep going," assured Itachi as he continued to walk towards the Akatsuki's secret headquarters. Naruto and Sakura continued along.

A few hours later, the trio came to what looked like an abandoned building.

"This is it," said Itachi.

The building itself looked like it would collapse at any time. The windows were boarded up and the walls held cracks and holes everywhere. The building was a light brown color and almost looked like it was made entirely out of sand. It didn't really make sense why such a famous and dangerous organization would have such a place as their headquarters.

Suddenly, Naruto felt Itachi tense up. Looking at the entrance of the building, there stood a single person, dressed in an Akatsuki uniform. The person wasn't wearing a hat and it was clear that the person was a woman. She was about as tall as Sakura but her cloak hid most of her other features. Her long red hair blew violently in the wind. Her eyes were a definite shade of teal and they were almost cat-like. Naruto also noticed the whisker marks on her face, exactly where he has his whisker marks. And then it came to him… this person who he is looking at… is Kairi.

"You're late, Itachi," she said. Her voice sounded normal enough. An almost innocent voice. However, that wasn't what Itachi thought. Although Itachi retained his calm composure Naruto could feel the hatred stirring within the Uchiha. "Where's Kisame?"

"He's dead," lied Itachi.

"I see. Oh well…" she said. Then, for no reason at all, she started laughing yet her laugh sounded so innocent. "I never liked that guy anyways. So, why are they here?"

"They are here to join us."

"Hmm…" she said as she took a look at Sakura first. "…from Konoha. We'll have to test her later." Her glance then turned towards Naruto. Then, at that moment, Naruto felt a chill down his spine as he looked into her fox-like eyes. There was something about her that Naruto had never felt before in his life. It wasn't fear, hatred, loathing or any of those things. It was more like…familiarity. Almost like he had known this person, a person he had just met, for a long time.

Kairi herself looked surprised when she looked at Naruto. Her surprise died down though as a strangely innocent smile crept up on her face. The words she said surprised everyone.

"It's been a long time…otouto-san."


	11. The Bonds we Share Part One

Author's Note: So I decided to continue and eventually finish this fiction because I kind of liked it. Anyways, the next few chapters help flesh out my OC character and gives more insight to Itachi.

Feel free to comment on anything in your reviews

* * *

**The Bonds We Share – Introductions  
**

Konoha Training Grounds – 15 years ago

Masaru looked at his new students, their faces awash with anxiety. They were the new team Ichi and including himself, there would be three Uchiha on the team. He had already read the reports sent to him from the Academy so he knew his entire team was quite talented. The younger Uchiha, a genius, graduated from the Academy only after a single year. The older Uchiha boy was well known as a loud-mouth but has also performed above and beyond at the ninja Academy. The third genin assigned to him, however, was a bit of an enigma. Her information surprised him at first, but the reason became all too clear afterwards. The Uchiha controlled the Konoha police force, so it only made sense to have her included in the Uchiha team so they could watch over her with a closer eye.

He wondered if the concern was necessary at all. She looked normal enough to him. But he smiled, knowing all too well how looks can be deceiving.

Addressing his students, he began his little spiel. "Welcome to team Ichi. As I'm sure you all know, I'll be your Jounin sensei, Masaru Uchiha. You may call me Masaru sensei. But before I go further, please introduce yourselves, starting with you – the tall one."

"Why?" questioned a haughty boy. He was about half a head taller than the others – A full head, actually, if you included his spiked up hair. The Uchiha uniform he proudly adorned was no different from what most people in the Uchiha wore.

"Because...," answered their Sensei rationally, "from now own you'll be a team. And part of being in a team is getting to know each other."

"But..."

"No buts. Or shall I inform your parents of how you like to disobey your own Sensei?"

The boy relented, though still clearly annoyed.

With the least amount of effort he could muster, he introduced himself. "...I'm Shisui Uchiha."

Then silence... The silence seemed so thick it could've been cut with kunai.

"Shisui, aren't there things you'd like to add?" Masaru questioned sternly.

An annoyed expression formed on the boy's face. "Like what?"

Masaru sighed. "Tell us something more about yourself, Shisui. Like hobbies, likes and dislikes... that sort of thing."

"Tch, what need does a shinobi have for that kind of useless information?" demanded the Uchiha boy, "We should be learning jutsu and stuff, not this retarded crap."

"SHISUI!" snapped their teacher, "You are an Uchiha, it would do you well to live up to that name."

Shisui had to bite his tongue to hold back a retort

"Tch, fine. Again, I'm Uchiha Shisui, of the great Uchiha clan," he continued with purposeful monotony, "Hobbies? I Do stuff I guess. Likes...? I like a lot of things. Dislikes...? I really dislike doing these introductions."

Their Sensei sighed again, clearly disappointed. "Is that it?"

"That's it," Shisui brushed off, a defiant look smeared across his face.

"Well, I'd have liked to hear more but it's obviously beyond your ability as a ninja to describe yourself. It wouldn't surprise me if you weren't an Uchiha at all."

That got to him.

"What!? FINE! I'm eight year old SHISUI UCHIHA," he violently introduced himself for the third time. "Along with learning new ninja techniques, I love reading dirty magazines. My favourite color is red. I love eating senbei. The thing I hate most is water. I also hate fat girls. My dream is to one day become the strongest Uchiha. And I have a hopeless crush on..." Stopping himself suddenly, he blushed. The girl giggled slightly.

Masaru, though, nodded approvingly. "Though you probably should have left out the dirty magazines part, it was well said. Didn't it feel good to let it all out?"

Shisui, who was still madly blushing, just harrumphed and looked away.

"Well then, that is one out of the way. Ok, you're next Itachi" Itachi merely nodded at his name as he turned to face his seemingly silent audience. Across from him sat his cousin Shisui, still fuming, and the peculiarly strange looking Kunoichi.

He thought nothing more of it as he introduced himself.

"My name is Itachi Uchiha," he started, a warm smile forming on his face, "I was able to skip two years of ninja academy and went straight to becoming a Genin. I hope to be a ninja you can rely on. Let's see... for hobbies, I like to watch birds, but I only see crows around here so it's starting to get a little boring. And what I like most...? Hmmm...." he pondered for a second, his eyes lighting up before answering. "...my little brother! I have a lot of fun taking care of him."

Itachi's smile then faded into seriousness. "The thing I hate most... is war. I was there during the third great ninja war and... well... let's just say my dream is a future without wars or fighting.

"Huh? But you're a ninja now, and an Uchiha at that!" commented Shisui. Itachi looked up at him. The two Uchiha boys didn't really know each other. They'd only see each other passing by or during family meetings. However, they were both raised during a time of great conflict, the third ninja war, and it seemed to create an inexplicable bond between them. However, from what Itachi observed of Shisui so far, there were definitely fundamental differences in their beliefs.

The entire Uchiha clan, almost like the Hyuuga, believed that they were the elite. Everything they did was wallowed in self-worth. Their entire philosophy revolved around being better than everyone else. And of course, parents passed down these beliefs onto their children. Itachi could tell right away that Shisui had been thoroughly indoctrinated by those philosophies.

Itachi thought differently, however. After the horrors he encountered during the war – having witnessed countless deaths, he wished for it all to end. If given the choice, Itachi probably wouldn't have been a ninja at all. Of course, with his father being the head of the clan, and himself being gifted in the ninja arts, Itachi didn't have much of a choice in his destiny.

Itachi smiled again, his eyes filled with a tiny bit of sadness. "I know... it's just a dream."

"And a fine one, Itachi," affirmed his teacher, "The path of ninja may be littered with conflict and death, but to the villagers, we are like a symbol of hope. Our duties pave the way towards a better future for us all as long as you remember not to stray off the path you set for yourself."

All three members of Team Ichi nodded.

"Good. And now our third member, please introduce yourself." Everyone looked expectantly at the red-haired Kunoichi, who twiddled her fingers nervously. She blushed at all the eyes pointed at her.

The third member of their team stuck out from the Uchiha like a sore thumb. She wore a bright orange ninja vest that clearly stood out from her black mesh under-suit. The matching orange pants she wore were calf length and bore strange blue spiral symbols on each side. Her eyes were a bright teal color that almost seemed to glow as much as the expression on her face. And the subtle whisker marks on her cheeks were something neither Uchiha had seen before.

But perhaps her most distinguishing feature was her unusually long flame-red hair. At first glance, she had plain looking straight hair that fell down to her shoulders, parted elegantly in such a way so her face was not obstructed. But upon a closer look, the back of her hair fell down to her upper thighs. Itachi wondered how she could fight with such long hair.

She nervously introduced herself. "I-I'm Kairi. Kairi Uzumaki... U-um... I"

"Hey, what's up with your outfit?" interjected Shisui, "Won't you attract too much attention as a ninja?"

"U-um... I --"

"And are those marks on your face scars or something? They look weird"

"But --"

"You're hair looks way too long too, you should cut it or it'll get in the way." She grabbed her hair, astonished at the boy's comments.

"And I've never heard of the Uzumaki clan before? Is your family really weak or something?"

Her shyness was shattered in an instant. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" She jumped towards Shisui in attack, betraying everyone's initial impression of her. Reacting almost instantly, Masaru caught her in mid-air, and held her back before she reached her target.

"Whoa! You're crazy," remarked Shisui as he jumped back at her reaction.

"I'M CRAZY!? YOU insulted my FAMILY! You wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for them," Her initial nervousness now just a distant memory.

"Whatever, Crazy. You don't know what you're talking ab--"

"THAT'S ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!" Their sensei now clearly agitated as well. "I'm disappointed in both of you. Was your training at the academy for nothing? Kairi, repeat to me how you should deal with your emotions."

Her head hung as she calmed down and recited one of the rules they had learned over and over at the Academy. "Shinobi should never let their emotions take control."

"Correct, shinobi who let their emotions get in the way will either end up dead or will severely compromise the team and the mission. Both of you should follow Itachi's lead."

Shisui goaded her on, "See that? He scolded you and praised an U-CHI-HA," Her killing intent came off her in waves but she restrained herself – just barely.

"SHISUI! I'm even more disappointed in you. It's obvious your lack of respect for others needs to be addressed. You'll be receiving extra lessons from me from now on," he informed the now none-too-happy boy.

"WHAT!? That's not fair."

"Being a ninja isn't about fairness. Do you think enemies will 'play fair' when we're fighting with our lives?"

"Tch."

"Well, now that introductions are over, I want you to settle your differences. Starting tomorrow we'll begin your training and if you aren't able to work as a team, I can't promise that you'll come out of it unharmed." His address was more towards Shisui and Kairi than Itachi. "We will meet at this field, precisely at 6 in the morning. Tardiness will not be tolerated. You are now dismissed."

Shisui and Kairi exchanged hateful glares before heading out in opposite directions. Itachi shook his head as he followed Shisui toward the Uchiha compound. Training with those two was going to get interesting.

* * *

Madara sighed. The things he'd put up with for revenge. He hadn't really thought about a plan when he came back to Konohagakure. Things just sort of happened. Like how he just 'happened' to find a lone and drunk Uchiha coming back from some bar, completely oblivious to his surroundings.

Madara was disgusted at how weak the clan had become in his absence. It wasn't even a challenge to kill and take the identity of that drunkard... a Masaru Uchiha. Masaru even surrendered the secrets of the clan to Madara's Sharingan before he died. Weak... so... weak. Weaklings like that were undeserving of the Uchiha bloodline. But Madara wasn't one to complain, he'd wipe out the rest of the clan, and the rest of Konoha – the Senjuu – soon enough. To think that the tools he'd use to accomplish his ambition would fall straight into his lap. All thinks to Masaru.

Two prodigious Uchiha students and the Kyuubi... it was almost too perfect. It was fun – like a game really, and his first card had already been played. He was now their Sensei. All he had to do now was make sure he didn't screw up the rest of his game plan. Of course, the Hokage would be sure to notice something eventually, but that would be far off and Madara would make sure it would already be too late by the time he was found out.

He thought about what kind of training he'd give his new precious pupils tomorrow.

A smile crept on his face as the idea hit him. It was perfect.


End file.
